The Liberal Democratic Party LDP and its junior partner Komeito would have 239 to 288 of the 465 seats in the lower house, the public broadcaster NHK reported on Sunday. So far the coalition had 305 seats.
The LDP has been in power almost continuously since the 1950s, but recent polls have predicted losses for the party due to dissatisfaction with the Corona policy. At the beginning of October, the former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida was elected head of government by the LDP after Yoshihide Suga’s withdrawal, and then he set the election date.
Suga resigned from office after just one year, among other things because of criticism of his corona policy. Because of record numbers of new corona infections, the Olympic Games in Tokyo had to take place without an audience. The number of cases has since declined and most of the restrictions have been lifted.
Still, some analysts believe that the LDP may struggle to retain its governing majority after the election. Before his election, the 64-year-old Kishida had promised a new beginning and massive corona aid for the economy, but in public he stands for continuity and a continuation of the politics of his predecessors.
Kishida has also promised to empower the middle class and tackle social inequality exacerbated by the pro-business policies of his predecessors Suga and Shinzo Abe. However, he has so far remained vague in his plans for the so-called new capitalism. The enthusiasm of the 106 million voters in Japan for the new head of government is limited, said economic expert Stefan Angrick of Moody’s Analytics.
