Keizo Obuchi was elected prime minister Thursday in the first split Diet vote since 1989, clearly illustrating the tight spot in which his Liberal Democratic Party now stands.
Obuchi was voted prime minister by the LDP-controlled Lower House in a plenary session early Thursday afternoon. However, the Upper House later rejected him in favor of Democratic Party of Japan leader Naoto Kan. Kan's DPJ combined with the other opposition forces to overwhelm the LDP's weakened minority in the upper chamber.
Kan's nomination was largely symbolic because the Constitution gives voting supremacy to the Lower House during selection of the prime minister. After a lengthy procedure to coordinate the views of the two houses ended in vain, Obuchi was confirmed as Japan's 54th prime minister.