In the wake of a devastating defeat of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in Sunday's Upper House election, the business community Monday called on both the LDP and opposition parties to avoid a political vacuum and join forces to aid the nation's ailing economy.
"Given the severe economic conditions of today, a political vacuum must be avoided at any cost," Takashi Imai, chairman of the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren), said in a statement.
"We strongly hope that the ruling and opposition parties join forces to quickly deliberate and pass by the end of next month a series of bills for resolving the bad-loan problems and restoring the financial system," he said.