Abe’s first loss in a by-election since his second administration

“It is not merely about the loss we suffered in the by-election. It is more about a series of disgraceful incidents happening under the Shinzo Abe’s administration.”

A diplomatic expert on Japan described on Monday how the Japanese ruling Liberal Democratic Party has recently felt. The expert intended to say that following being hit hard by the dispute over Japanese seafood with Korea, the Abe administration lost the by-elections on Sunday in Osaka and Okinawa, which has cast a critical blow to his leadership and control of the country.

All the Liberal Democratic candidates lost to the opposition party in the Sunday by-elections. Even in Osaka where Prime Minister Abe visited to ask for votes on Saturday, his ruling bloc failed to defeat the region’s political party Japan Restoration Party. In Okinawa, opposing voices against the relocation of the Futenma air station to the region were raised to win the election.

It is the first time for the ruling bloc to lose in the total of seven by-elections since the second Abe administration was inaugurated in late 2012. It is enough to leave dumbfounded the prime minister who has been called a master of elections thanks to a series of victories in the elections. The Asahi Shimbun reported that Abe accepted the loss in the by-elections on Monday, saying that a lesson should be learnt in the Liberal Democratic Party.

The by-elections carried out on Sunday saw many unexpected elects. Former Japanese pop star Yuki Hashimoto, 26, of a girls’ band name Kamenjoshi was elected in Shibuya, Tokyo. She is famous as an idol star who graduated the literature department at Tokyo University in 2016. In Atami, Shizuoka prefecture, where the city council has 15 members, Yamada Haruo, 91, achieved victory for 12 consecutive elections. He is known to be the oldest among the current city council members in Japan.