Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba was reelected Monday by Japan’s Parliament despite his governing coalition suffering the worst election loss in more than a decade.
Ishiba’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior partner Komeito together lost their majority in the lower house of Parliament.
There has been voter outrage over the ruling party’s financial misconduct after prosecutors indicted 10 people earlier this year, including three lawmakers and a number of political aides.
Lawmakers Accused of Financial Misconduct
The scandal is concerned with political funds raised through party event tickets.
Dozens of lawmakers in Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party are alleged to have pocketed profits from ticket sales in exchange for falsifying mandatory accounting reports.
Last year, several lawmakers from the LDP faced allegations of failing to report hundreds of millions of yen (equivalent to millions of dollars) in funds.
The unreported money was said to have been funneled into unmonitored slush funds.
A special parliamentary session convened on Monday to elect the prime minister, a process traditionally seen as a formality in Japan.
This time marked the first runoff in three decades.
Ishiba defeated opposition leader Yoshihiko Noda of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan by a vote of 221 to 160, securing another term but with a weakened mandate.
Most of Ishiba’s Cabinet members will remain in place, though he will need to appoint replacements for three officials who either lost their seats or were impacted by the election results.
Who Might Join Ishiba’s Coalition?
Since the election, Ishiba has resisted calls to step down, and has said he will negotiate with additional coalition partners to bring stability back to his government.
Noda, the centrist opposition leader, has been pushing to form a cohesive opposition coalition, although he has yet to find the support needed.
The prime minister will need bipartisan support on critical policies, including Japan’s budget and other key legislation.
Looking for new allies, Ishiba has set his sights on the Democratic Party for the People (DPP), a smaller conservative opposition party that saw its seats quadruple under the leadership of Yuichiro Tamaki.
Tamaki, a Harvard-educated former Finance Ministry official, gained popularity with policies advocating for increased take-home wages and higher tax-free income allowances, resonating with young and low-income voters.
Tamaki has declined to form a formal coalition, preferring to leverage his party’s growing influence.
Tamaki is navigating scandal, recently admitting to an extramarital affair exposed by a magazine report.
Japan’s PM to Meet Trump
Ishiba is now preparing for a diplomatic tour, including appearances at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and Group of 20 summits, as well as a possible meeting with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on his way home.
After Trump’s win, Ishiba told reporters that he hoped to work with Trump to elevate the alliance between Japan and the U.S.
“I will work hard to establish a relationship with him as soon as possible.”
In a post on X, the Japanese leader said he was looking forward to working closely with Trump to further bolster the alliance and cooperate to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific.
This article includes reporting from the Associated Press
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