The ruling Liberal Democratic Party retained a comfortable majority in the Lower House election on Sunday, winning 259 seats and securing a satisfactory outcome for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in his first major test as leader.
Together with coalition ally Komeito's 32 seats, the ruling bloc clinched 291 seats — less than the 305 seats it had before the election but still enough to pass bills smoothly in the House of Representatives.
The LDP-Komeito coalition secured an “absolute stable majority” of 261 seats, which gives them authority to chair all standing committees and allows ruling coalition lawmakers to make up the majority of the members on those committees.