Japan's embattled Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba re-elected by politicians in runoff vote
Shigeru Ishiba will remain as Japan's prime minister.
In short:
Shigeru Ishiba will remain the prime minister of Japan, after politicians re-elected him in a vote.
Last month, Mr Ishiba's coalition suffered the worst election loss in more than a decade, after a series of scandals eroded trust in the government.
What's next?
As leader, Mr Ishiba will need to navigate a new Donald Trump presidency, rising tensions in the region, and domestic pressure on the cost of living.
Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has been re-elected by Japanese politicians, after his scandal-tarnished coalition lost its parliamentary majority in a lower house election last month.
Mr Ishiba 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).
After a series of scandals, voters in Japan punished the LDP at the ballot box, with the coalition's worst election loss in more than a decade.
Mr Ishiba's LDP and coalition partner Komeito won the biggest bloc of seats in the election but lost the majority held since 2012, leaving him beholden to small opposition parties to pass his policy agenda.
The 67-year-old will now run a fragile minority government as tensions rise with rivals China and North Korea, domestic pressure mounts to rein in the cost of living, and Japan's ally the United States prepares for a second Donald Trump presidency.
First runoff vote in decades decides leadership
Underlining that fragility, Monday's vote in parliament went to a runoff for the first time in 30 years, with no candidate able to muster majority support in the first round.
Mr Ishiba eventually secured 221 votes, well clear of his nearest challenger, former prime minister Yoshihiko Noda — the head of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party — but still short of a majority in the 465-seat lower house.
Yoshihko Noda was unable to defeat Shigeru Ishiba in the leadership contest.
"In light of the very challenging election, we must transform into a national party that serves the people, that empathises with the peoples' struggles, their misery, and their joy," Mr Ishiba said.
His imminent challenge is compiling a supplementary budget for the fiscal year through March, under pressure from voters and opposition parties to raise spending on welfare and take steps to offset rising prices.
For approval he needs the backing of at least one opposition party, which is most likely to be the Democratic Party for the People (DPP) headed by Yuichiro Tamaki.
Mr Tamaki has held co-operation talks with Mr Ishiba, but DPP politicians did not vote for Mr Ishiba to stay on as prime minister. Mr Tamaki is also in a precarious position after admitting on Monday to an extra-marital affair revealed in a tabloid magazine.
Mr Ishiba now has to prepare for a slate of international engagements, including a summit of the Group of 20 big economies in Brazil later this month.
Last month Shigeru Ishiba led his coalition to its worst election loss in more than a decade.
He is also trying to arrange a stopover in the US to meet US president-elect Trump. The Japanese leader spoke to Mr Trump for the first time on Thursday in a "friendly" five-minute conversation during which he congratulated him on his election victory.
Some Japanese officials fear Trump might again hit Tokyo with protectionist trade measures and revive demands for it to pay more for the cost of stationing US forces there.
These issues were largely smoothed over in Trump's first term, from 2017 to 2021, by the close ties between the president-elect and Japan's then-premier, Shinzo Abe — a bond that Mr Ishiba seems keen to re-establish.
Japan will hold elections next year for the less powerful upper house, where the ruling coalition's slim majority could also be at risk if Mr Ishiba cannot revive public trust roiled by a scandal over unrecorded donations to politicians.
Reuters/AFP
By：ABC(责任编辑：admin)
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