Japanese General Election Voting Begins, Key Points to Watch Whether LDP Will Continue in Power

[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] Japan's general election to elect members of the House of Representatives for a four-year term began on the 31st.

Voting, which started at around 7 a.m. at approximately 46,000 polling stations across Japan, will end at 8 p.m.

This general election, held for the first time in four years since October 2017, will elect a total of 465 members: 289 from single-member districts and 176 from proportional representation across 11 nationwide blocks by party.

The election campaign, which has been underway for 12 days since candidate registration on the 19th, serves as a stage to evaluate the nearly nine-year-long "LDP dominance" political system, spanning from the administrations of Shinzo Abe and Yoshihide Suga to the Fumio Kishida Cabinet inaugurated earlier this month.

Major Japanese media outlets analyzed that many districts remain highly competitive until the final moments, making it uncertain whether the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) can secure the single-party majority of 233 seats or more, which it has maintained since 2012.

If the LDP loses more than 40 seats from its previous 276 seats and falls short of a single-party majority, it is expected that Prime Minister Kishida, who has been in office for a month, will face a significant decline in momentum for governing.

However, Japanese media forecast that when combined with the coalition partner Komeito's seats, the ruling coalition is expected to surpass the majority threshold necessary to maintain the government.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.