Resumen de General (legislative) elections in Japan (31 of October 2021)
Eduardo Oliveira e Sousa, Susana Vieira, João Simões
On the last day of October 2021, Japan went once again to the polls in the most recent general elections for the House of Representatives (衆議院 – Shūgiin). The electoral scenario may be understood as having been the first major challenge to the coalition between the Liberal Democratic Party (自民党 – Jimin-tō) and the Komeito party (公明党 – Kōmeitō). Previous Prime-Minister, Yoshihide Suga (菅•義偉), had resigned from his functions after the poor results in the approval polls related to the government’s performance in dealing with the SARS-CoV2 pandemic (COVID-19), announcing at the end of September that he wouldn’t run in the new elections. These events throw the country into uncertainty since on one hand, it was not clear who would lead the coalition at that exact moment and on the other hand if the coalition would survive the scrutiny of its first mandate. Thus, in the present elections, the coalition between the Liberal Democratic Party and the Komeito party presented itself with new leadership – the previous Minister of Foreign Affairs from both governments of Shinzo Abe (安倍•晋三) and interim Minister of Defense in the third government of Abe/Suga – the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, Fumio Kishida (岸田•文雄).
