Japan's ruling coalition loses majority, election outcome in balance

Election officers prepare to count ballots for the general election at a ballot counting centre in Tokyo, Japan October 27, 2024. REUTERS/Manami Yamada

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan's ruling coalition lost its parliamentary majority in a drubbing at Sunday's national election, raising uncertainty over the make-up of the next government and the outlook for the world's fourth-largest economy.

With all but 20 of the 465 seats accounted for, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has ruled Japan for almost all of its post-war history, and junior coalition partner Komeito took 209 seats in the lower house of parliament, public broadcaster NHK reported.