Japan’s Fumio Kishida declares election victory, vows to boost economy
- The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior coalition partner Komeito won 293 of the 465 seats in parliament’s lower house in Sunday’s election
- Kishida took office a month ago after predecessor Yoshihide Suga resigned, partly due to public discontent over his response to the Covid-19 crisis
Kishida, a soft-spoken centrist who has been in office for a month, vowed to boost the world’s third-biggest economy with a fresh pandemic spending package which he said he would draft this month.
He also said Japan would “take a leading role in working towards zero emissions in Asia”, a day before he heads to Glasgow for the COP26 summit.
The long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior coalition partner Komeito won 293 of the 465 seats in parliament’s lower house, local media reported while the official result was finalised.
“It was a very tough election, but the people’s will – that they want us to create this country’s future under the stable LDP-Komeito government and the Kishida administration – was shown,” the prime minister said.
“We received a precious 261 seats for the LDP. As a responsible party … we will meet the public mandate.”