Japan’s prime minister Shigeru Ishiba won a rare runoff vote to stay in power despite his scandal-hit governing coalition’s loss in the parliamentary election last month.
Mr Ishiba secured 221 votes to retain his position in the final round of a lower house ballot, winning the highest number of votes among all candidates.
He failed to win a clear majority of the votes but was ahead of his nearest challenger, ex-prime minister Yoshihiko Noda, who got 160 votes.
Mr Ishiba now faces the challenge of leading a fragile minority government.
This comes as protectionist Donald Trump regains power in the US, Japan’s key ally, while tensions escalate with China and North Korea.
Mr Ishiba’s LDP party and coalition partner Komeito lost their majority following a punishing set of results in last month’s general election, winning just 215 seats, down from 279 and well short of the 233 needed to form the government.
It was the worst result for the LDP, which has ruled Japan for 65 of the past 69 years, since 2009, when it briefly fell out of power.
Mr Ishiba had called for a snap election shortly after taking office on 1 October to capitalise on his honeymoon period. However, his popularity tanked as he went back on a number of policies, including creating an Asian version of Nato, support for same-sex marriage, and the right for married individuals to choose to keep different surnames.
The prime minister is set to retain most of his previous Cabinet members but will need to replace three who lost their seats or were affected by the election results.
A special parliamentary session was convened on Monday to pick the new leader in a vote required to be held within 30 days of a general election. None of the candidates secured the 233 votes required in the 465-member House of Representatives.
Mr Ishiba is now expected to attend international engagements such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Peru and the summit of the Group of 20 big economies in Brazil next week.
He is trying to arrange a stopover in the US around the G20 summit to meet Mr Trump.
Mr Trump is expected to again hit Tokyo with protectionist trade measures and revive demands for it to pay more for the cost of stationing US forces there.
These issues were largely smoothed over in Mr Trump’s first term, from 2017 to 2021, by the close ties between the president and Japan’s then premier Shinzo Abe, a bond Mr Ishiba seems keen to re-establish.
Mr Ishiba faces another political test with the upcoming elections to the upper house next year. The ruling coalition currently has a narrow majority in this chamber, but it could be jeopardised if Mr Ishiba is unable to regain public confidence.
Additional reporting by agencies
