Japan faces political uncertainty after ruling party's defeat

Jul 12, 2010, 13:14 GMT

Tokyo - Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan's ruling party was facing a policy deadlock after suffering defeat in the upper house election, official results showed Monday.

The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) lost its majority in the upper house in the first national election Sunday since taking power in September.

The DPJ kept only 44 of its 54 contested seats in the chamber, leaving it with a total of 106 seats in the 242-seat House of Councillors.

The main opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) took 51 seats, giving it 84, while Your Party, the most popular small party, reached a total of 11 seats, up 10 from its previous total of one seat.

The DPJ took power in a landslide victory last year in a lower house election, ending more than a half-century of almost uninterrupted rule by the LDP.

After unpopular leader Yukio Hatoyama, Kan's predecessor, abruptly stepped down in early June, Kan, his finance minister, succeeded him and enjoyed approval ratings of around 60 per cent in opinion polls.

But soon after Kan proposed hiking consumption tax from 5 to 10 per cent to rein in mounting public debt, his support rates plunged below 50 per cent.

Kan, Japan's fifth premier in three years, acknowledged his 'abrupt' proposal of the tax hike contributed to the defeat in Sunday's election, but indicated Monday he would not resign.

Though the DPJ controls the more powerful lower house, the ruling party now needs to find new allies to be able to implement their policies.

So far no parties have expressed interest in joining the DPJ government, but further political manoeuvring was expected.

But the LDP's gain in strength could be a force against change, said Tobias Harris, Japanese politics expert at the US Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

'The LDP's old guardsmen will be able to use this vote as vindication for their resistance to anything more than superficial reform to the party,' Harris said.

Voters also moved away from the two main parties in larger numbers than ever before, with less than 60 per cent voting for either the DPJ or the LDP.

Akikazu Hashimoto, professor of political science at J F Oberlin University Graduate School, has long said a two-party system will not take hold in Japan as it 'isn't suited to Japan's politics and national character.'

'Unlike political parties in the West, Japan's two main parties weren't established based on a unifying political philosophy,' Hashimoto said. 'What kind of political beliefs has the DPJ demonstrated? They have yet to do so.'

Some analysts said since both the DPJ and the LDP supported tax increases, the two major parties could form a so-called 'grand coalition.'

Half of the House of Councillors' 242 seats were up for grabs in Sunday's election. Turnout stood at 57.9 per cent, a little lower than that in the 2007 upper house race, in which the DPJ defeated the then-ruling LDP.