Kishida Hangs On To Power; Easing Income Inequality Threatened

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's ruling Liberal Democratic Party was forecast to hold on to its majority in Sunday's parliamentary election although it suffered losses that could curb his drive to ease wealth inequality, according to exit polls, Sakura Murakami and Ju-min Park reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: One criticism that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida cannot seem to shake is his lack of charisma.

Keeping the majority in parliament's lower house is seen as key to Kishida, himself just weeks into the job, hanging on to his position within the faction-riven ruling party. Polls by public broadcaster NHK, however, showed the conservative LDP emerging on a weaker footing.

The vote was a test for Kishida, who called the election soon after taking the top post early this month, and for the long-powerful party, which has been hurt by perceptions it mishandled the coronavirus pandemic.

A soft-spoken former banker, Kishida has struggled to shake the image that he lacks charisma. While he has hewn to traditional policies of the party's right-wing, pushing to increase military spending, he has also promised to address wealth inequality, touting a "new capitalism" that has stoked concern among investors.

Keeping the majority by itself will preserve the LDP's ability to shape policy without becoming too dependent on its junior coalition partner, the Buddhist-backed Komeito.

"The coalition itself won't fall apart and the government will remain, but even given this, the number of seats they have is definitely decreasing and this could make managing parliament difficult," said Airo Hino, a political science professor at Tokyo's Waseda University.

The LDP was expected to win 234 to 253 seats in the lower house, more than the 233 needed for a majority, NHK said. That was still down sharply from before the election when the LDP held 276 seats.

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