Japan PM Kishida’s Coalition Keeps Majority With Fewer Seats

Japan's Prime Minister and ruling Liberal Democratic Party leader Fumio Kishida puts rosettes by successful general election candidates' names on a board at the party headquarters in Tokyo, on Oct. 31, 2021. Behrouz Mehri, Pool via AP

TOKYO—Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s governing coalition kept a majority in a parliamentary election Sunday but was expected to lose some seats in a setback for his weeks-old government grappling with a coronavirus-battered economy and regional security challenges, according to preliminary results.

Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior coalition partner Komeito together have won 274 seats as of late Sunday, with some 40 seats still undecided, in the 465-member lower house, the more powerful of Japan’s two-chamber Diet, public broadcaster NHK reported.