Japan PM's LDP loses three Diet seats to main opposition party

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan's Liberal Democratic Party, headed by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, lost three seats in House of Representatives by-elections Sunday, including Shimane Prefecture, known as a conservative stronghold, delivering a harsh indictment on the scandal-hit LDP.

The leading opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, led by left-leaning lower house lawmaker Kenta Izumi since November 2021, acquired all three seats by obtaining support from anti-LDP voters.

The lower house by-elections were held as the ruling LDP has come under intense scrutiny after some of its factions neglected to report portions of their income from fundraising parties and maintained slush funds for years for their members.

The LDP's crushing defeat in Shimane is set to undermine Kishida's political footing and prod LDP lawmakers to attempt to oust him from power before the next general election, making it unlikely he will run in the party's presidential race around September.

Seats in Shimane and Nagasaki prefectures, as well as one in Tokyo, were up for grabs in the first national elections since the scandal came to light late last year. The conservative LDP previously held all the vacated seats.

LDP Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi -- its No. 2 figure, after Kishida -- told reporters in Tokyo: "We will humbly accept the results" of Sunday's by-elections, adding that the party "needs to work as one to grapple with the challenge."

With the scandal eroding public trust in politics and dampening support for the LDP, it did not field candidates in the Tokyo No. 15 and Nagasaki No. 3 districts and focused on defending the seat in the Shimane No. 1 constituency in the western prefecture.

Former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Kishida's