Japan's Abe vows to stay on

Updated 19.25 Mon Jul 30 2007

Keywords: election, shinzo abe, Japan

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has vowed to stay in his job despite a drubbing for his party in an upper house election.

The 52-year-old said: "I am determined to carry out my promises although the situation is severe. We need to restore the people's trust in the country and the government."

Without a ruling bloc majority, Mr Abe will find it difficult to pass laws, threatening legislative paralysis

He added: "We must take these results very seriously and reflecting on what we must reflect on. I want to fulfil my responsibility to proceed with reform to build the nation and promote economic growth that the people can feel."

Political analysts have predicted that the leader will come under pressure to step down after his second-in-command resigned.

The election stripped Mr Abe's coalition of its upper house majority in his first big electoral test since taking office ten months ago.

The soft-spoken, once-popular PM still faces pressure to step down from within his own Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled Japan for most of the past five decades.

Former defence minister Shigeru Ishiba was quoted as saying Mr Abe "should quit", adding: "If he doesn't, the LDP will be finished."

However, a lack of suitable successors in the party could help him survive, analysts said.

The LDP and its partner, New Komeito, won 46 seats compared with 60 for the Democrats. The ruling coalition had needed 64 to keep its majority in the upper house, where half of the 242 seats were up for grabs.

The LDP alone won only 37 seats, worse than a loss in 1998 that forced Ryutaro Hashimoto to resign as prime minister.

That leaves the ruling bloc with just 103 upper house seats in total, down from 133 before the poll, Kyodo news agency said. Final official results will not be available until late Tuesday.

But, without a ruling bloc majority, Mr Abe will find it difficult to pass laws, threatening legislative paralysis.

The election loss comes on top of a global shake-out in markets, and the two factors combined to push the Nikkei stock index to a four-month low.