A bruised Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is exploring potential collaboration with other parties after losing his majority in elections, local media reported.
Official results showed that Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party and its junior partner Komeito suffered their worst election result since 2009 in the vote on Sunday.
One major reason was voter anger over a party slush fund scandal that helped sink previous LDP premier Fumio Kishida after three years in office.
Ishiba said on Monday he would not quit despite the debacle and indicated he would head a minority government as he was not considering a broader coalition “at this point”.
But media reports yesterday said the LDP was talking to opposition parties about arrangements to ensure Ishiba can get legislation through – and also remain prime minister.
Together with the Komeito party, the LDP, which has governed Japan almost non-stop for seven decades, won 215 of parliament’s 465 lower house seats.
One potential kingmaker is the Democratic Party for the People (DPP), whose 28 seats would push the LDP-Komeito coalition over the 233-mark for a majority.
According to the Yomiuri newspaper, Ishiba has decided to seek a “partial” coalition with the centrist DPP, whose manifesto included subsidies for reducing energy bills.
“If there is a request for talks between party leaders, there is no reason to reject it, though it depends on what we will discuss,” DPP leader Yuichiro Tamaki said yesterday.
“Talks between both parties’ secretaries-general are currently taking place and there are various communications.
“But I don’t feel like anything concrete is proceeding,” Tamaki said.
Ishiba is also considering asking the DPP for support when parliament votes on whether he will continue as prime minister, the Yomiuri reported, which could take place on Nov 11.
Japan’s parliament has to convene by Nov 26 – 30 days after the election.
But also likely courting the DPP in a bid for the premiership will be Yoshihiko Noda, head of the Constitutional Democratic Party, whose seat tally rose from 96 at the last election to 148.
This appears less likely, given that the opposition comprises eight different parties, while memories of the last tumultuous period of opposition rule between 2009 and 2012 still linger, analysts said. — AFP
