Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba kept his job in a parliamentary vote on Monday, despite having recently led the ruling coalition to its worst general election result in 15 years.
Lawmakers appointed former defence minister Ishiba head of a minority government — meaning he may face political gridlock, or need to compromise to pass new bills.
Ishiba, 67, took office six weeks ago and held a snap election on October 27, hoping to shore up his mandate as leader of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
But voters, unhappy with inflation and a slush fund scandal that helped sink his predecessor Fumio Kishida, delivered a ballot-box blow to the LDP and its junior coalition partner.
“I was appointed as prime minister. I take this weight solemnly,” Ishiba told reporters late at night after forming a new Cabinet.
“After the very difficult election results, I believe the LDP must be reborn as a party for people.”
MPs in parliament’s powerful lower house convened on Monday for a special four-day session to nominate the prime minister, a necessary step after a general election.
Despite losing its majority in the October election, the LDP coalition remains the largest bloc in the 465-seat lower house.
The opposition parties are divided on key issues, stopping them from mounting a credible challenge to Ishiba.
The lower house speaker announced Ishiba’s appointment after a run-off — the first since 1994 — in which he won 221 votes against 160 for Yoshihiko Noda, head of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP).
Eighty-four votes were discounted because they named other politicians.
Some people joked online that the prime minister appeared to be dozing off in TV footage from the three-hour parliament session — a common occurrence among Japanese lawmakers — as MPs lined up to vote one by one.
Trump concerns
Ishiba announced a new cabinet after the vote, replacing ministers who lost their seats in the election. There are still only two women among the 20 cabinet members.
To have enough sway to pass legislation going forward, the ruling bloc has asked for help from the Democratic Party for the People (DPP), a small centrist group.
The DPP has agreed to cooperate on a vote-by-vote basis while staying out of the coalition.
In talks with the LDP, it has demanded tax cuts and energy subsidies that economists say would slash the government’s revenues.
“In order to stay in power, Ishiba needs to pass the government budget this winter,” Tomoaki Iwai, professor emeritus at Nihon University, told AFP.
“It will mean the LDP will have to concede some of its policies to seek cooperation from others,” Iwai said.
Ishiba said Monday he “would like to meet directly with US president-elect Donald Trump at the earliest possible opportunity.”
He is reportedly trying to arrange the meeting for later this month, around the time the Japanese premier travels to Peru for an economic summit.
Analysts have warned that possible fresh US tariffs on Chinese and Japanese goods under Trump may fuel inflation.
Washington and domestic lawmakers are likely to press Ishiba for higher public spending — such as for defence and industry — and tax cuts at the same time, analysts said.
During the late-night press conference, Ishiba touched on the importance of defence manpower and mentioned Chinese and Russian military activities surrounding Japan and North Korea’s latest ICBM missile launch.
The prime minister also said the government will provide “more than 10 trillion yen ($65 billion) of public support to the AI and semiconductor sector by 2030.”
Affair scandal
Approval ratings for Ishiba’s government are just above 30 percent, but polls show a majority of the public says he should remain prime minister.
In a twist, DPP head Yuichiro Tamaki on Monday admitted to an extra-marital affair reported by a tabloid.
“I apologise for causing such a disturbance,” he told reporters. His party later decided to keep him on as leader.
Along with these negotiations, Ishiba must also contend with discontent within the LDP, which has ruled Japan for almost all of its post-war history.
“Unless he improves his public support, those inside the LDP may start saying they cannot fight the upper house election under Ishiba” next year and look for another leader, Iwai said.
Noda vowed after the vote on Monday to “work hard to unite the opposition parties” with an eye to making gains in the upper house election, according to public broadcaster NHK.
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