TOKYO - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's administration retained control of Japan's more powerful legislative chamber in national elections yesterday but lost ground to the largest opposition party, whose leaders called their gains historic.
In his first test at the polls since winning the country's top job more than two years ago, Koizumi's personal popularity brought fewer votes than some analysts had expected. They said the outcome could encourage opponents of his no-pain-no-gain economic reforms.
The returns also showed voters are increasingly split between just two parties, suggesting Koizumi's Liberal Democrats can no longer count on dominating a fragmented political opposition as they have for decades.
The Liberal Democrats and their two smaller allies saw their majority in the 480-seat lower house of Parliament shrink to 275 from 287, with the prime minister's party slipping to 237 seats from 247.
The coalition kept a tight grip on the chamber - retaining control of all committees as well as the ability to pass legislation.
We earned a mandate for our reform path
said Shinzo Abe, secretary-general of the Liberal Democrats. We fulfilled our responsibility.
Some analysts, however, said the party's assessment might be optimistic. The opposition gains could embolden anti-Koizumi factions within the ruling party who oppose his belt-tightening policies. It might also force the prime minister to pause before moving ahead with an unpopular plan to send Japanese peacekeepers to Iraq.
Koizumi has great personal popularity but this election showed that hasn't carried over to the LDP said Jiro Yamaguchi, a professor of politics at Hokkaido University. Yamaguchi said Koizumi could find it more difficult to advance his domestic and foreign policy agendas.
Japan's largest opposition party, the Democratic Party, claimed victory with its 40-seat gain, which increased its total to 177, it was reported. Official results are due today.
Leaders of the centrist party said they had taken a big step closer to their seven-year-old goal of building a counterweight to Koizumi's more conservative Liberal Democrats.
We're not completely satisfied since we really wanted to win power
but we've established a significant foothold
said Secretary-General Katsuya Okada. This was a historic election.
The party credited its decision to adopt a campaign platform that committed all its candidates to specific policies and time frames - an innovation in a country where slogans are typically formulaic requests for voters' consideration.
We fought a great battle
said Democratic leader Naoto Kan. Voters understand what we're talking about.
Analysts cautioned, however, that the opposition gains were not all losses for Koizumi's coalition. They also reflected a virtual collapse of two small opposition parties, the communists and socialists, which have steadily fallen out of favor with Japanese voters in recent years as their ideologies have appeared increasingly out of touch with the times.
The socialists and the communists were the big losers - the Democrats basically picked up their seats
said Hisayuki Miyake, a political analyst. I don't think the election really changes much from the coalition's perspective.
The communists kept just nine of their 20 seats, while the socialists slipped to six from 18.
Koizumi, who easily won his own seat for an 11th term, said the inroads made by the Democrats justified his efforts to rejuvenate his party's stodgy image. He forced two octogenarian former prime ministers into retirement just last month and appointed a 48-year-old telegenic deputy.
The LDP has been in power for a long time
the prime minister said. The mood for change propelled the Democrats' gains.
Final voter turnout figures released this early morning came in just under 60 percent, about 2 1/2 percentage points below the last lower house elections in 2000. The drop may have been due in part to cold, drizzly weather in parts of Japan during yesterday's voting.
Candidates debated the administration's plan to send peacekeepers to Iraq, a proposal to rethink constitutional restraints on the military and ways to keep the nation's pension system solvent - a big concern in one of world's fastest graying societies.
But Japan's economic woes remained the central issue.
Koizumi argues his reforms have gotten the world's second-largest economy back on track toward recovery after a decade-long slump and urged voters not to change horses in midstream.
That message continued to resonate with many voters in a nation that has turned over power to the opposition only once in the last five decades.
It's better to keep the LDP in power
said Tokuji Ishida, an 80-year-old retiree, outside a Tokyo polling station. Koizumi is carrying out reforms
as he said he would.
