Japanese PM Ishiba vows to stay after ruling coalition's election debacle
發佈日期: 2025-07-21 20:11
TVB News
Japan's ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has lost its majority in the House of Councillors.
The centre-right Liberal Democratic Party and its junior partner Komeito fell three short of winning 50 seats in Sunday's election.
Having suffered a similar lower house defeat in October last year, the result marks the first time the LDP has lost control in both houses of the Diet since the party's foundation in 1955
On the election day, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, also president of LDP, placed red paper roses on the names of elected candidates at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarter in Tokyo.
The final vote count was completed early Monday.
The ruling coalition needed 50 seats to retain control of the 248-seat upper house. The LDP only secured 39 seats of the 125 seats at stake and Komeito took eight, with members elected for six-year terms.
The bruising loss, which comes amid rising prices and tariff concerns, has made the coalition a minority in both parliamentary chambers.
Speaking after the polls closed, Ishiba said he solemnly takes the result and vowed to remain in office as prime minister.
Ishiba said: "We must accept the harsh reality humbly and sincerely. We are the largest party by comparison. So our party has a responsibility to fulfil for this nation."
Ishiba said his focus was to avoid creating a political vacuum and to tackle impending challenges, including pressing for trade negotiations with the U.S.
Meanwhile, the opposition parties made gains in the election, winning 78 new seats. Combined with existing seats, they hold 126 seats in the upper house which is over the threshold of 125 seats for majority.
The upstart populist party Sanseito, campaigned under "Japanese First" slogan and anti-immigration stance, has emerged as one of the biggest winners.
It made a leap from one seat three years ago to the current 14 seats, the third-most among opposition forces in the poll.
The party leader, Sohei Kamiya, a former local assembly member and a Self-Defence Force reserve personnel, said he did not expect this much support.
Japan's opposition leader Yoshihiko Noda has ramped up his attack on the struggling ruling coalition, saying the polls explicitly show that voters said no to the Ishiba administration.
Noda's Constitutional Democratic Party took 22 seats in the election and became the country's largest opposition party.
