Japan:Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe insisted he would stay in his job yesterday despite suffering a crushing political reverse after just 10 scandal-tainted months in office.
Mr Abe's grip on power has been badly weakened by the results of the upper house election, which saw a historic swing away from the conservative ruling coalition he heads toward the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).
With three seats left to be decided, public broadcaster NHK said the Liberal Democrat Party (LDP) and its partner, New Komeito, had won 44 seats compared to 59 for the DPJ.
The coalition needed 64 to keep their majority in the upper house, where half of the 242 seats were up for grabs.
The LDP alone was certain to win fewer than 40 seats, NHK said - worse than the loss in 1998 that forced Ryutaro Hashimoto to resign as prime minister. The verdict follows a string of political blunders and gaffes, and the resignation of three cabinet ministers amid accusations of corruption and fraud.
The resignations, along with a public pensions fiasco involving millions of lost records, tarnished Mr Abe's government and rapidly eroded its support.
Former prime minister Yoshio Mori added to the 52-year-old Mr Abe's misery over the weekend when he indirectly criticised him as a political novice who may have been too young to be the head of government.
Mr Abe has repeatedly said he intends to stay on whatever the results. "I would like to steadily proceed with education reform and revising the constitution," he said last night, adding that while he accepted the results with humility he was determined to finish his reform plans. But some commentators are already predicting his political demise.
"It is highly likely the people around him will persuade him to get out of power," said political analyst Takao Toshikawa.
The election has no legal impact on Mr Abe's position, but with his credibility badly damaged he must now decide whether he can contain the fallout from one of his party's worst electoral defeats and risk paralysing his drive to reconstruct the country's political architecture.
His predecessors, Sosuke Uno and Ryutaro Hashimoto, both resigned after similar beatings in 1989 and 1998.
His government is half-way through an ambitious political programme, which aims to rewrite the constitution, reform the education system and build closer links with the US military.
Many analysts had predicted voters would punish him at the polls for neglecting bread-and-butter issues, including pensions, the greying of the countryside and Japan's growing wealth gap.
The ruling coalition still has a huge majority in the more powerful lower house and does not have to call a general election until 2009.
Mr Abe has a packed summer schedule which could forestall any immediate leadership contest, but several men have already been tipped to take his place, including foreign minister Taro Aso, LDP veteran Yasuo Fukuda and finance minister Sadakazu Tanigaki.
The election result is sweet victory for the 11-year-old DPJ, which looks set to take control of the upper house with 55 to 65 seats.
State broadcaster NHK last night said the DPJ had already topped its previous record of 50 seats in an election three years ago. As campaigning began more than two weeks ago, DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa promised to retire from politics if his party did not win a majority.
Over the weekend, he said: "If we . . . allow Abe's administration to survive, it means democracy will never take root in Japan."