Japan’s ruling party defeated in Tokyo ballot

Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling party scrambled yesterday to control damage from an embarrassing defeat in Tokyo municipal elections.

Mr Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party suffered a heavy loss in the assembly elections on Sunday.

Maverick Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike’s new party surged to victory on her reformist image.

Ms Koike’s party and its allies secured a comfortable majority, winning a total of 79 of the assembly’s 127 seats.

The city branch of Mr Abe’s LDP won just 23 seats, down from its preelection share of 57 seats.

The vote was closely watched because previous Tokyo assembly elections have set the tone for subsequent national polls.

The 2009 assembly election, in which the LDP won just 38 seats, was followed later that year by the party’s defeat in a national election that forced it from power.

The LDP still has a dominant place nationally in the absence of centre-left alternatives.