US presidential election's gonna happen on next Tuesday. Finally ending the year long masturbation they call campaign. Then comes the tune titled The Election Was A Fraud after it - no matter who wins. Actually it was 4 year long campaign because they played that song in 2021 for a year, then in 2022 they had the midterm elections, which is another one year jerkoff, then they were warming up for the primaries for another year.
Among all this circlejerk Japan carried out a whole campaign just under two weeks, with the election on October 27th). Sure the governing party shot itself into the feet but still.
In 2021 the Liberal Democratic Party (the Jimintō) won the elections with quite the lead, although with an already dropping popularity (they gained power in 2012 the first time with Shinzo Abe, since then they had won each time, but with less seats at each elections).
The Jiminto has a 3 year cycle for its presidency, and the former defense minister, Shigeru Ishiba won in 2024 September. Starting from October he took over the seat of the Prime Minister from his predecessor Fumio Kishida. Thinking it's time to reinforce his position via a general election, where he could lead his party to victory, he announced a snap election. However the popularity of Jiminto is not so shiny due to the so called slush fund scandal (they funneled campaign funds into private bank accounts), and got less than half of the seats in the Japanese House of Representatives (the Japanese Parliament, the Kokkai, is bicameral). Now they are forced to govern from minority.
The biggest winner is the major opposition party the Constitutional Democratic Party (Rikken-minshutō) which got a whopping over 50 seats more than in previous election. However smaller parties emerged too, so now there are 9 parties in the legislature instead of the previous 5.
What are the implications?
Firstly not sure.
But.
The Far East might get volatile, with Best Korea's getting Russian support, and with the constant sabre rattling around Taiwan, god knows what will happen if the Ukraine war is nearing, or it gets finished. A strong, but at least fit to work Japanese legislation and government could mean a pillar of stability, but an indecisive one could prevent Japan from acting in time.
As for their inner politics, I dunno if they would better or worse, and with whom. Japan has its problems, but they live comfy and secure I think.