The day after the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and its junior partner, Komeito, lost its majority in the Lower House election for the first time in 15 years, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba declared his intention to remain in office.

He stated, “In this severe security and economic environment, we cannot afford any stagnation in national politics,” but continuing the administration without regaining the public’s trust would be a tall order.

The LDP’s seats in the lower chamber plunged from 247 before the election to 191, a staggering loss of 56 seats.

Komeito also incurred a significant loss of eight seats, down to 24, making the combined total for both parties 215, which is 18 seats short of the majority threshold of 233.

Ishiba, who took office at the beginning of October, framed the election as a vote of confidence in his new government, setting the “majority for the LDP-Komeito coalition” as the line for victory or defeat.

Although Shinjiro Koizumi, chairman of the LDP’s Election Strategy Committee, has resigned to take responsibility for the electoral pasting, as a matter of principle, the party’s leader should bear the responsibility for the results of the election.

Out of 46 lawmakers who became mired in the scandal over political funds amassed and distributed by LDP factions, 28 failed to be re-elected, and only three of the candidates who were not endorsed by the party as punishment for their implications in the scandal managed to win.

These outcomes point to the deep anger and distrust the scandal had generated among the voters.

“The LDP must do heartfelt soul-searching and be reborn,” Ishiba stressed. “Going back to my basics, I will spearhead hard-hitting reforms of our party by eliminating everything that the public thinks is the logic of party insiders,” he added.

However, Ishiba has a history of contradicting his previous vows. To believe his words, one must see the realization of promised political fund reforms.

This needs to include the abolition of policy activity expenses, which the LDP currently distributes to individual party executives, and the disclosure of how Diet members spend their fixed monthly allowances to cover research, travel and communications expenses, which were formerly known as “buntsu-hi” for short.

In addition, Ishiba needs to deliver on his promise of the early establishment of a third-party institution for monitoring political funds.

Komeito fared no better, with leader Keiichi Ishii, who replaced longtime party leader Natsuo Yamaguchi as party president on Sept. 28, and deputy leader Shigeki Sato losing their elections.

In the western Kansai region around Osaka, Komeito’s traditional stronghold, where the party had seldom lost elections due to its powerful organizational base, it faced challenges from candidates of Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) in four Osaka districts and was defeated in all of them.

The backlash against the LDP certainly influenced Komeito’s performance. If Komeito fails to play an effective role in pushing the LDP toward political funding reforms as a ruling coalition partner, the party will find it difficult to recover its strength.

It’s not just the slush fund issue that has damaged trust in politics.

Justice Minister Hideki Makihara and former education minister Masahito Moriyama, two lawmakers whose relationships with the former Unification Church, formally called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, were questioned, lost in a single-seat constituency.

In addition, they also failed to gain seats in a proportional representation bloc under a system of double candidacy.

This is a clear manifestation of deep-rooted distrust related to this issue.

As it has lost the majority in the more powerful Lower House, the LDP-Komeito coalition cannot hope to pass budgets or other bills without the cooperation of the opposition.

Ishiba has said he has no intention of forming a new coalition for now, but has expressed his willingness to “adopt what should be adopted” from the opposition’s policy proposals.

A “partial coalition” based on case-by-case cooperation on specific policies seems to be on his mind.

The question of political priorities facing Ishiba is not how to secure enough numbers to pass legislation but how to incorporate the public will shown in the general election into concrete politics.

This is the responsibility imposed on both the ruling and opposition parties.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Oct. 29