Japan PM Kishida’s coalition keeps majority with fewer seats

By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s coalition kept a comfortable majority in a parliamentary election despite losing some seats. Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner Komeito together won 293 seats. The level allows the LDP and the ruling bloc to control parliamentary committees in the lower house and ram through legislation. Kishida says he sees the result as a mandate but the loss of seats reflected voters’ judgment of his predecessors over the last four years. Five opposition parties together lost 10 seats as their strategy of unifying candidates in most single-seat constituencies backfired. A big winner was the rightwing Ishin, or the Japan Innovation Party, which nearly quadrupled its seats and became the third biggest party.