Liberal Japan

[Entry update 1: I have added some news stories below results.]

[Entry update 2: I have added even more news stories.]

[Entry update 3: I have inserted some graphics from NHK news.]

[Entry update 4: It is not reflected below yet, however, the final unaccounted seat went to Komeito, whose total is now 9.]

Here are the results from the 2007 Upper House election in Japan:

Here is a table in English listing the same information (clicking on the party will take you to their home page):

Party	Seats Won
LDP	37
DPJ	60
Komeito	8
JCP	3
SDP	2
Kokumin	2
New Party Nippon	1
Independent	7
Result not in	1

Turn out Rate: 59% (link)

In the House of Councillors there were 121 seats up for election out of a total of 242. Of the seats not up for election 58 were controlled by the ruling parties (the red seats) and 63 were controlled by the opposition parties (the blue seats):

As a result of the election it now appears that the ruling parties won only 46 seats, while the opposition parties won 74 (one seat is still unaccounted for):

Here is what the new House of Councillors will look like, the ruling parties will control 104 seats, and the opposition parties will control 137 seats (one seat is still unaccounted for):

Early Headlines:

Ruling coalition suffers huge defeat (Japan Times)
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling coalition was thoroughly trounced in Sunday’s election, losing its majority in the House of Councilors, nearly complete returns showed. The Democratic Party of Japan meanwhile took over as the leading force in the Upper House. Despite the huge setback for his Liberal Democratic Party, Abe said he plans to stay in power. … The LDP, which had 64 contested seats going into the election — appeared certain to fall short of winning 40 — even worse than the 44 mark that in 1998 forced Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto to step down, Kyodo reported. The DPJ meanwhile sharply boosted its strength from the 32 contested seats it had going into the election. … New Komeito chief Akihiro Ota indicated his party will continue to support Abe. … Still, pressure for Abe to take responsibility for the LDP’s defeat was brewing even within his party. “I cannot understand how (Abe) can express his intention to remain in office even before the final results are known. He does not seem to understand public common sense,” said Yoichi Masuzoe …
Yoshio Hachiro, head of the DPJ’s campaign headquarters, said Sunday’s results represent a vote of no confidence against the Abe administration. “It is now the proper course in politics (for Abe) to seek voters’ mandate in the House of Representatives,” Hachiro said … Voter turnout was estimated at 57.71 percent, about 1 point higher than in the previous Upper House election, in July 2004 … With the ruling bloc losing its Upper House majority for the first time since 1998, attention was expected to focus on how Abe contains the damage — or whether he will even stay in power. … It is also the first time for a party other than the LDP to seize most of the seats in the chamber since the LDP was established in 1955. …

More headlines below …

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Minshuto hands LDP historic loss (Asahi Shimbun)
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, brought in as the election “face” of the Liberal Democratic Party, has bombed in his first major test, a failure that could cost him his job. Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) was coasting to victory in Sunday’s Upper House election, pushing the ruling coalition into a minority position. … Although the prime minister accepted responsibility for the LDP’s defeat, he said he had no intention of resigning. … Traditionally, the Upper House president is chosen from the party with the most seats. That would give Minshuto a tremendous advantage in preventing the ruling coalition from forcing the passage of its bills–a tactic often used in the previous Diet session. Minshuto and the other opposition parties could not only block such legislation, but the Upper House president could also decide how sessions were handled. … Asahi exit polls indicated that not only did Minshuto win over unaffiliated voters, but it also cut into the LDP support base. … Although Hidenao Nakagawa, secretary-general of the LDP, and Mikio Aoki, head of the LDP’s Upper House caucus, indicated they would step down, party members may demand more heads to roll.

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Abe didn’t click with public on issues close to voters’ hearts (Asahi Shimbun)
The crushing defeat that voters handed to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party on Sunday demonstrated the degree to which Abe and company are out of touch with the public. Before the July 12 start of the Upper House campaign, Abe said he would make constitutional revision the core issue of the election. During speeches for LDP candidates, Abe stressed the fact that his administration had passed into law legislation for a national referendum that was the first procedural step toward constitutional revision. He also pointed with pride to the revision of the Fundamental Law of Education, the first such amendment since its enactment in 1947. The fundamental law’s revision heralded the possibility of revision of the Constitution. However, voters on Sunday were obviously far more concerned with bread-and-butter issues that directly affect their daily lives. Key among those issues was concern about the state of the public pension system. … Minshuto focused on the pension issue by again proposing a minimum pension program. It also proposed other livelihood measures, such as steps to bridge the growing disparity in incomes as well as moves to help Japan’s farmers and child-rearing families with direct subsidies.

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LDP trouncing leaves DPJ as largest bloc after Upper House election (Mainichi Shimbun)
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) suffered a heavy defeat in Sunday’s House of Councillors election, official announcements and Mainichi exit polls have suggested — a defeat worse than that which led to the 1998 resignation of then Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto.
As a result, the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has become the largest bloc in the chamber, ousting the LDP from the top spot for the first time since its founding in 1955, and leading the opposition parties to a majority in the Upper House. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has announced that he will stay in power despite the setback, but he will likely face greater difficulties in steering the government without an Upper House majority. … Upper House elections are held every three years, in which half of its 242 seats are contested.

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Abe intends to stay in power despite major defeat for LDP (Kyodo via Yahoo!)
Japan’s ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is bracing itself for a crushing defeat in Sunday’s upper house election, facing the loss of its majority in the chamber for the first time since 1998, a result that could increase pressure on Abe to step down. Abe, who heads the Liberal Democratic Party, said, “This humiliating setback is my responsibility.” But he appeared determined to hang on to power, repeatedly saying he would do so in a series of television interviews late Sunday night. … Abe, 52, suggested he would consider reshuffling his Cabinet after the election but ruled out dissolving the House of Representatives, the more powerful lower house of Japan’s parliament, for another election. … The opposition camp led by the DPJ, headed by Ichiro Ozawa, is on its way to securing a combined majority in the upper house. But Ozawa did not appear in any television interviews, having been advised by a doctor to rest due to fatigue after campaigning, according to the party. The LDP-led coalition has a comfortable majority in the lower house, which has greater legislative power and the final say on the state budget and the election of a prime minister. Losing control in the upper house, nonetheless, will make it all the more difficult for Abe’s administration to push its legislative agenda through parliament, such as a bill to extend Japan’s help for U.S.-led antiterror activities in the Indian Ocean beyond its current legal limit of November. The DPJ alone is set to become the largest party in the upper house and take the post of its president. It would be the first time that a political party other than the LDP has held the most seats in the upper house since the LDP came into being in 1955. …

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DPJ candidates sweep constituencies (The Yomiuri Shimbun)
The Liberal Democratic Party suffered major setbacks in the 29 prefectural constituencies where only one seat was up for election.
… [This is a very detailed article looking at the races in many of the single seat districts.]

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International Sources of News:

Japan PM suffers election drubbing, says to stay (Reuters)
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s conservative ruling camp suffered a crushing defeat in upper house elections on Sunday, but the 52-year-old hawkish leader insisted he would stay in his job despite the bashing. … The party’s No.2 and its de facto campaign manager, Hidenao Nakagawa, resigned as secretary-general to take the blame for the abysmal showing. Critics say Abe, who pledged to boost Japan’s security profile, rewrite its pacifist constitution and nurture patriotism in schools, was out of touch with voters. “Prime Minister Abe has projects like revising the constitution, but the Democrats have been saying that people’s everyday lives should come first. I think those policies should be prioritised,” said Hirofumi Nemoto, 48, a newspaper seller in Chiba, who said he voted for the Democratic Party. Ozawa, a pugnacious veteran who bolted from the LDP 14 years ago, had pledged to shrink income gaps, protect the weak and help farmers — a group that had long supported the LDP. … Analysts said the threat of policy paralysis could hurt Tokyo shares, boost bonds and add to doubts about the timing of Japan’s next interest rate hike, but added investors were more focused on a broader shake-out triggered by problems in U.S. credit markets. … Some in Abe’s party expressed dismay at his decision to stay and analysts said his grip on power was not assured, but added that the LDP was short of viable successors. “The real crisis for the LDP is that there is nobody who would call for Abe’s resignation and say, ‘I’ll do it’, Hokkaido University professor Jiro Yamaguchi said. …

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Japan’s voters give Abe a thrashing (Financial Times)
Until Sunday, Japan’s public had not had the opportunity to pass its verdict on Shinzo Abe, the blue-blood politician anointed prime minister by the ruling Liberal Democratic party last September. Voters clearly relished the opportunity. In upper house elections, they handed Mr Abe’s party a crushing defeat and rewarded the opposition Democratic Party of Japan with a clear majority. It was the first time in the ruling LDP’s 52-year history – only nine months of which it has spent out of power – that it won fewer seats than the biggest opposition bloc. … [Long article, good analysis.]

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A Rout for Japan’s Ruling Party (Time)
As he coasted to the Prime Ministership last September, Shinzo Abe often spoke of his grand ambitions to remake Japan’s postwar system and enlarge the country’s role on the world stage. But after what is shaping up to be a catastrophic performance in Sunday’s elections for the Japanese Diet’s Upper House, it may be the Japanese public’s turn to reshape the administration of Shinzo Abe — if his government survives. …

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Abe Vows to Stay After Losing Japan’s Upper House (Bloomberg)
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he won’t resign after his ruling coalition lost its upper house majority in elections yesterday as voters punished the government for a botched pension system and other scandals. … Exit polls and early vote counts showed the opposition taking control of the upper house, which will force Abe, 52, to negotiate on legislation that could disrupt plans to promote the market-oriented policies of his predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi. Ichiro Ozawa, 65, who leads the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, said when campaigning he will push for a general election to gain control of the more powerful lower house. … The election will have “limited impact” on investors, who are more concerned about the unwinding of the yen carry trade and the timing of a rise in interest rates by the Bank of Japan, Don Alexander, director of fixed income in New York at Citigroup Global Wealth Management that oversees about $1.3 trillion in assets, said before yesterday’s election. …

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Premier’s Party Suffers Big Defeat in Japan (NYT — N. Onishi)
Japan’s governing Liberal Democratic Party suffered a crushing defeat in today’s election in the upper house of Parliament, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed that he would not step down. The main opposition Democratic Party seized control of the upper house by a landslide, capturing seats not only in cities but also in rural districts that have long been strongholds of the Liberal Democratic Party. The rout was widespread, with household names in the governing party falling one after another before opposition newcomers. In a devastating rebuke to Mr. Abe, angry voters punished him for his mishandling of bread-and-butter issues and a series of scandals in a government seemingly in disarray. … Under Japanese law, the lower house of parliament, which Mr. Abe’s party controls firmly, chooses prime ministers. So a loss in the upper house would not immediately force his resignation. But past prime ministers have taken responsibility for defeats in the upper house by resigning. …

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Abe Vows to Stay After Election Defeat (Associate Press)
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed Sunday to stay in office despite leading his scandal-stained ruling coalition to an unexpectedly severe and humiliating defeat in parliamentary elections. Exit polls showed Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party losing the majority it held with its coalition partner in the upper house, a stunning reversal of fortune for a ruling party that has controlled Japan virtually uninterrupted since 1955. The leading opposition Democratic Party of Japan made huge gains, the exit polls showed. … Sunday’s defeat was worse than expected for Abe. … “If the results are as projected, we have suffered an utter defeat,” Nakagawa said hours after the polls closed. …