Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)-led coalition has lost its majority in parliament, its worst result in more than a decade.
Opposition parties won more than half of the seats in the mid-term elections.
With 22 seats left to declare, the LDP and its coalition partner, the smaller Komeito, won 208 seats to the opposition’s 235.
A party needs 233 seats in the Diet, the lower house of Parliament, to form a single government.
The general election result has fueled uncertainty about how the world’s fourth-largest economy will be governed.
The largest opposition party, the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP), won 143 seats as of 02:00 JST (17:00 GMT), according to NHK.
The election was announced three days after the LDP’s new leader, Shigeru Ishiba, was elected as the new leader, and before he was officially sworn in as prime minister.
“The voters have given us a harsh verdict and we must humbly accept this decision,” he told NHK.
It comes after a tumultuous few years for the LDP, which has seen a “stack” of scandals, widespread voter apathy and record-low approval ratings.
The party saw approval ratings below 20% earlier this year in the wake of a political fundraising scandal.
Yet, the opposition failed to unite or convince the electorate that they were fit to govern.
The main opposition party had just 6.6% approval before parliament was dissolved.
“It is very difficult to make a decision on choosing parties and I think people are losing interest,” Miyuki Fujisaki, who works in the care-home industry and a long-time LDP supporter, told the BBC ahead of the start of the vote.
He said the LDP had a problem with corruption, but the opposition parties were not alone.
“They certainly complain a lot, but it’s not clear what they want to do,” the 66-year-old said.
For all the apathy, politics in Japan has been moving at a fast pace in recent months.
Shigeru Ishiba, who took over as prime minister after being voted in by the ruling party to succeed his predecessor Fumio Kishida in office until 2021 – made a surprise decision to step down in August.
The move to hold elections comes at a time when the LDP is scrambling to restore its tarnished image among the public. Ishiba – a long-time defense minister – described it as a “people’s verdict”.
The reputation of the ruling party has been tarnished by a series of scandals. Chief among them is the party’s relationship with the controversial Unification Church – described by critics as a “cult” – and the degree of influence it has had over lawmakers.
After that the political financial corruption scandal was exposed. Prosecutors in Japan have charged dozens of LDP lawmakers with receiving income from political fundraising events. Those allegations — which ran into the millions of dollars — led to the dissolution of powerful factions that were the backbone of its internal party politics.
“What a terrible situation the ruling party is in,” said Michiko Hamada, visiting an opposition campaign rally at Urawa station on the outskirts of Tokyo.
“That’s what I feel most about. It’s tax evasion and it’s inexcusable.
This strikes her as particularly bad at a time when people in Japan are struggling with high prices. Wages haven’t changed in three decades — the so-called “lost 30 years” — but prices have risen in the past two years at the fastest pace in nearly half a century.
This month saw price hikes on thousands of food items and other everyday items such as postage, pharmaceuticals, electricity and gas.
“I pay 10,000 yen or 20,000 yen ($65 – $130; £50 – £100) more for food a month (than I used to),” Ms Hamada said.
“And I don’t buy the things I buy. I try to save but it costs more. Things like fruit are too expensive.
She wasn’t the only one worried about the high price. Pensioner Sei Shimizu said he now has to work part-time.
“Our hourly wages have gone up a bit, but it doesn’t match the prices,” he told the BBC, picking up some food from a stand at Urawa station. “Because everything in regular stores is expensive, I come to places like this to find something cheap and good.”
