By John Baker in Maebashi, Japan, and Eva Cheng
Japanese voters expressed disillusionment with Japan's long-standing governing party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Senate elections on July 12. The big gainers were the Japan Communist Party (JCP) and the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).
The JCP picked up 15 seats, the third largest result. These senators will join eight others elected at the previous half-Senate election, to make the JCP, with 23 total seats, the third largest party in the Senate.
The DPJ picked up 27 seats, making it main opposition party, with a total of 47 seats. The DPJ? recently merged with two smaller opposition parties.
The LDP fell much short of expectation to win only 45 seats. It now holds 103 out of the total 252 Senate seats.
The Social Democratic Party (formerly the Socialist Party) won just five seats. Voters punished it for its previous alliance with the conservative LDP government. It now has 13 Senate seats.
The electoral system combines proportional representation and prefectural representation, loosely based on population. The system favours larger parties like the LDP, whose 30.6% of the combined vote won it 45 seats, while its competitors obtained less in proportion. Voter turnout was 58.5% out of a 99 million electorate.
In the proportional representation section, the JCP won 8.2 million votes (14.6%), a marked gain from the 3.8 million votes (9.5%) in 1995 and 3.5 million votes (7.9%) in 1992. In the same years, the LDP scored 14.1 million (25.2%), 11 million (27.3%) and 14.9 million (33.3%). The DPJ's score on July 12 was 12.2 million votes (21.7%).
In the prefectural constituencies, the JCP obtained 8.7 million votes (15.7%), compared to 1995's 4.3 million (10.4%) and 1992's 4.8 million (10.6%).
The results were the JCP's best ever. They give it the right to propose a bill accompanied by a budget.
Voters abandoned the LDP over the stagnant economy, 4% unemployment and a series of corruption scandals. The biggest swings away from the government were in city areas like Tokyo and Yokohama, where the JCP picked up most of its prefectural seats.
The results will boost the standing of the JCP and throw the SDP into disarray, as it failed to win more than 4.3% of the vote.
Though the LDP still holds on to a majority in the lower house, which has the power to form the government, the JCP said that majority was obtained by head-hunting of parliamentarians after a general election. It said the July election clearly revealed voters' lack of confidence in the LDP, urging it to dissolve the parliament and call a general election.