Japanese voters have stripped the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party of its majority.
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00:00Across Japan, election workers spent Sunday counting ballots in a snap election.
00:05Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru, now barely a month in office,
00:08called the vote in the hopes of a strong mandate.
00:11But as the votes were tallied, it became clear the move had backfired.
00:15His Liberal Democratic Party, a party that's ruled Japan almost without interruption since the 1950s,
00:20lost its majority.
00:22On the streets of Tokyo, there was some surprise.
00:31But also, a recognition that scandals,
00:34most recently over ties to the Unification Church and political kickbacks,
00:38had worn out voters' patience.
00:48Ishiba himself says he knew the fight would be a tough one.
01:00But the fight ahead may be even tougher.
01:08The Liberal Democratic Party and its junior partner, the Komeito,
01:11now have just 215 seats, 18 short of a majority.
01:16Ishiba must now either try to form a wider coalition,
01:19one in which his party will be in a weaker position,
01:21or rule as a minority government.
01:24Both options are potentially risky.
01:26But while the opposition says stripping the Liberal Democratic Party of its majority was a major goal,
01:31it's not exactly celebrating.
01:33It's made up of a range of parties of different sizes and ideologies,
01:37and they'll need to stick together.
01:39Even the biggest, the Constitutional Democratic Party, is 85 short of a majority.
01:57All this adds up to an unusual period of weakness for a party used to calling the shots,
02:07and more political uncertainty ahead for the world's fourth biggest economy.
02:11Kama Shu and John Van Triest for Taiwan Plus.