Japan’s Ruling Liberal Democratic Party Retains its Parliamentary Majority

Key takeaways

• Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, in office for just a month, led the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to a convincing win in Lower House elections on October 31.
• The win was particularly impressive since in early September, while Yoshihide Suga was still prime minister, Japanese political experts were predicting that the ruling party would lose a large number of seats.
• The LDP ended up losing only 15 seats, a relatively modest decline from the 276 seats the party had held since its landslide victory during the last Lower House election in 2017.
• The main surprise on election night was that the LDP’s powerful Secretary General, Akira Amari – a key political ally and policy advisor to Kishida – lost in his own constituency. While this was a blow to Kishida, Amari will remain in the Diet, as he won a seat as part of the LDP slate of candidates elected under the proportional representation portion of Japan’s hybrid electoral system.
• While Amari will remain an influential advisor, Kishida quickly named incumbent Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi as LDP secretary general, which was seen as a sound move.
• The LDP’s long-time coalition partner, Komeito, held its own, so the ruling bloc retains a large majority and controls all of the Diet committees.
• With the election behind him, Kishida can now focus on trying to advance his policy agenda, initially by assembling a new stimulus package to speed Japan’s economic recovery from its Covid-19 induced slowdown.
• Kishida will be under pressure to deliver results quickly, however, as Japan will hold elections for the Upper House of the Diet in July of 2022.