ABE’S RULE SEEN SHAKEN BY TOKYO ELECTION LOSS

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s scandal-laden ruling party scrambled Monday to control damage from an embarrassing defeat in Tokyo municipal elections, but experts said the stunning result could mean the beginning of the end to Abe’s long reign. Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party suffered a thumping loss in the assembly elections Sunday, taking a beating for recent scandals and a high-handed approach in achieving policies, while maverick Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike’s new party surged to victory on her reformist image. Koike’s party and its allies secured a comfortable majority, winning a total of 79 of the assembly’s 127 seats. But the city branch of Abe’s LDP won just 23 seats, its worst-ever showing in the assembly. Experts said voters had sent a message to Abe and his party. “The results were a punishment by voters who were frustrated by the recent development in the LDP,” said Tsuneo Watanabe, a senior research fellow at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation.