Japan PM called on to resign

Japan’s prime minister faced growing calls to resign today, a day after his coalition suffered a humiliating election defeat that claimed the job of his ruling party’s secretary general and may trigger a Cabinet overhaul.

Voter outrage over millions of missing pension records and a series of political scandals stripped Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party of its majority in parliament’s 242-seat upper house, while handing the opposition huge gains.

The defeat was the clearest proof yet of Abe’s tumbling fortunes and a dramatic reversal of the stellar support he enjoyed after taking office less than a year ago.

Newspaper editorials urged Abe to resign in the face of the public’s revolt.

“Voters gave a clear failing mark,” the Asahi newspaper said. “The prime minister should face the results seriously and step down.”

The Mainichi newspaper, meanwhile, called on Abe to disband parliament’s lower house for snap elections that could put a new premier in office.

“Having decided to stay on despite the election loss, the prime minister should dissolve the lower house at an early date and ask the voters for a response,” the newspaper said.

Official election results released today showed the LDP and its junior coalition partner, the New Komeito party, with a total of 103 seats – a 30-seat loss that left it far short of the 122 needed to control the house.

The main opposition Democratic Party grabbed 112 seats, up from 81.

Abe accepted responsibility for the loss hours after polls closed yesterday, but refused to step down. Among the first casualties, however, was the LDP’s number two, secretary general Hidenao Nakagawa, who resigned in the face of mounting losses.

Hoping to reinvigorate his hobbled government, Abe is likely to reshuffle his Cabinet within the coming weeks.

“Our party must reflect on the results and rebuild itself,” said LDP MP Yoichi Masuzoe, who retained his seat. He urged Abe today to “form a well-balanced and strong Cabinet”.

Abe is expected to meet New Komeito leader Akihiro Ota later to reconfirm their coalition.

“I must push ahead with reforms and continue to fulfil my responsibilities as prime minister,” Abe said.

The LDP still controls the more powerful lower chamber, which chooses the prime minister. But calls for Abe’s resignation could start sounding from within the Liberal Democratic Party. Stepping down in the face of a heavy election defeat is not unprecedented.

In 1998, then-prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto was forced to step down after the Liberal Democratic Party won just 44 seats out of 121. Sousuke Uno lost his job as prime minister after winning only 36 seats in 1989. Abe himself resigned as secretary general of the party in 2004, when the Liberal Democrats won 49 seats, two short of their goal.

Opposition leaders were elated at the results.

“The nation has spoken very clearly,” DPJ executive Naoto Kan told reporters at DPJ headquarters. “Naturally, our sights are on the lower house and our final goal is a change in government.”

The defeat will make it more difficult for the LDP to pass Bills that are contested, with the upper house expected to have a president from the Democratic Party whose members would also dominate key posts in house committees.

Abe, 52, took office in September as Japan’s youngest prime minister, promising to build a “beautiful Japan”, and won points for mending strained diplomatic ties with South Korea and China.

But his honeymoon was short-lived.

In the first in a series of scandals, administrative reform minister Genichiro Sata stepped down in December over charges of misusing of political funds. In May, Abe’s agriculture minister killed himself amid allegations he also misused public money. The new agriculture minister became embroiled in another funds scandal.

In a final straw for voters, Abe brushed off warnings by the opposition late last year that pension records had been lost. That inaction came back to haunt him in the spring, when the full scope of the records losses emerged. Some 50 million claims had been wiped out.