Vote of no confidence as Japanese PM loses upper house majority

The centre-left government of Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan lost its majority in parliament's upper house in elections Sunday, leaving the fledling leader scrambling for coalition allies. The result is a huge blow to Kan, who took office just a month ago.

Reuters

Despite the fact the government is not immediately threatened because it holds a majority in the lower chamber, the election result makes it more difficult to pass laws.

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Interview: Correspondent Julian Ryall in Tokyo

Sarah Elzas

Kan’s 10-month-old centre-left coalition government, led by the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), will hold no more than 113 out of the 242 seats in the House of Councillors, with 122 seats needed for a majority.

The poll is the first ballot box test since Kan's party swept to power under a previous leader last summer, and the result complicates his ambitious reform plans for the world's number two economy.

When Kan took office as Japan's fifth prime minister in four years, he pledged to restore the nation's vigour after two decades of economic malaise and to whittle down a huge public debt mountain.

Correspondent Julian Ryall in Tokyo told RFI that the DPJ has had trouble making good on these promises.

"They have dropped the ball in so many ways. Part of that is the fact that the Japanese public had such high expectations," Ryall said.

"They came in after the LDP, the previous administration, had been there almost uninterrupted for almost 50 years ... in August last year there was a real sense they were making history."

In opposition, the LDP has splintered and there are now 11 major political parties in Japan seeking to build a name for themselves, which may be coalition contenders.

"One of them that has done very well in a short space of time is called Your Party, a conservative offshoot of the LDP," Ryall said.

"I have been speaking to analysts who have told me that it would be a major mistake for the DPJ to go to these people.

"If it just wants to be populist, it will go for Your Party, but if it wants to stick to its guns and really bring about the change that it promised, then it has to be true to itself."

Pre-election polls indicated the coalition would fall short, with many voters turned off by Kan's proposal for a debate on a tax hike to restore public finances.

"With all of my strength, I reached out to people with my messages and messages of the DPJ," Kan told reporters after casting his vote at a polling station in Tokyo.