Japan Prime Minister Ishiba accepts election loss but plans to stay in office

Japan's prime minister said that he accepts his political party's election loss, adding that he plans to stay in office.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's center-right Liberal Democratic Party needed 50 seats to retain control of the country's 248-seat upper chamber, but only won 47 after the Sunday election, with one seat yet to be called as of Monday morning, The Guardian reported.

The election doesn't directly determine whether Ishiba's minority government falls, but it puts pressure on him, after his party lost control of the more powerful lower house in October.

Ishiba told a news conference that he would stay in office to oversee tariff talks with the U.S. and other issues, such as rising consumer prices.

The prime minister told NHK that he “solemnly” accepted the “harsh result.”

When asked about whether he would continue as prime minister and party leader, Ishiba said, “That’s right. It’s a difficult situation, and we have to take it very humbly and seriously.”

The Liberal Democratic Party's center-left main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party got 37 seats in the election, with center-right Democratic Party for the People getting 22, and the small, right-leaning Sanseito Party winning 14, up from one in the previous election.

Election turnout was 58%, which is six points higher than the last upper house vote, and a record number of people cast ballots early as the election was in the middle of a three-day weekend.

The Liberal Democratic Party has governed Japan almost continuously since 1955, and the last three prime ministers who lost a majority in the upper house stepped down within two months, the BBC reported.