TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese lawmakers voted on Monday (11) to keep Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba as leader after his scandal-hit coalition lost its parliamentary majority in a lower house election in the last month.
Ishiba, who called early voting after taking office on October 1, must now lead a fragile minority government as protectionist Donald Trump returns to command of ally the United States, tensions rise with rivals China and North Korea, and Internal pressure grows to control the cost of living.
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His Liberal Democratic Party and coalition partner Komeito won the largest bloc of seats in the election but lost the majority it had held since 2012, leaving it dependent on small opposition parties to pass its policy agenda.
Highlighting this fragility, Monday’s vote in Parliament, broadcast on television, went to a second round for the first time in 30 years, with no candidate managing to garner majority support in the first round.
But Ishiba ended up prevailing, as expected, obtaining 221 votes, well above his closest competitor, former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party, the main opposition party, but still without a majority in the Chamber of Deputies. of 465 seats.
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Japan will hold elections next year for the less powerful upper house, where the ruling coalition’s slim majority could also be at risk if Ishiba fails to regain public trust, shaken by a scandal of unregistered donations to parliamentarians.
Their looming challenge is to compile a supplementary budget for the fiscal year through March, under pressure from voters and opposition parties to increase spending on social assistance and take steps to offset rising prices.
To be approved, it needs the support of at least one opposition party, which will likely be the People’s Democratic Party (DPP), led by Yuichiro Tamaki.
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With the confirmation of his position as prime minister, Ishiba appointed three new ministers, one for transport, one for justice and one for agriculture, two of whom replace LDP parliamentarians who lost their seats in the parliamentary elections.
Ishiba is now preparing for a series of international engagements, including a G20 summit in Brazil on November 18-19.
(Reporting by John Geddie, Tim Kelly and Yoshifumi Takemoto)
