Japanese Prime Minister promises “fundamental reforms” after losing majority – Observer

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba promised this Monday to initiate “fundamental reforms” within the Liberal Democratic Party (PDL, right-wing conservative), which lost its majority in the Lower House of Parliament after Sunday’s general elections.

“I will initiate fundamental reforms in matters of financing and policy,” Ishiba told the press.

The person responsible for the PDL campaign resigned this Monday, following the defeat, a party leader confirmed to the France-Presse news agency.

“As an election official, I have submitted my letter of resignation” to Prime Minister and Party Chairman Shigeru Ishiba “to take responsibility for the result, and [a demissão] was accepted”, said Shinjiro Koizumi, quoted by Japanese television Fuji TV.

Ishiba attributed the electoral defeat to “suspicion, distrust and anger” among voters following the financial scandal that rocked the PDL.

“The biggest factor is the suspicion, distrust and anger that has not gone away regarding the problem of funding and politics”the prime minister told the press.

The financial scandal, which had already contributed to the unpopularity of the previous prime minister, Fumio Kishida, led the PDL to punish several dozen members for not having declared the equivalent of several million eurosraised through ticket sales to fundraising nights.

Shigeru Ishiba guaranteed this Monday that intends to remain in office despite the electoral defeatindicating that he does not intend to create a “political vacuum”.

“I want to fulfill my duty, which is to protect people’s lives, to protect Japan”, insisted the prime minister.

Hours earlier, Ishiba had already acknowledged to public broadcaster NHK that the party received a “harsh judgment” from voters.

According to projections based on exit polls, the PDL’s coalition with ally Komeito should not obtain an absolute majority.

At the end of a campaign in which it suffered from high inflation in Japan and the consequences of a financial scandal, the PDL may have won between 153 and 219 seats, according to first projections. This number is much lower than the absolute majority of 233 seats, out of a total of 465.

Without an absolute majority with its coalition partner, the PDL will have to look for other allies or form a precarious minority government, as the opposition remains too fragmented to propose an alternative.

This result will be practically unprecedented in the history of the PDL, which managed to remain in power almost uninterruptedly since 1955.

Ishiba, 67, who became prime minister on October 1, had called early elections, promising voters “a new Japan”, with a program to strengthen security and defense, increase support for families with low income and revitalization of the Japanese rural world.