Japanese Hand Ruling Coalition A Sharp Rebuke

Japanese voters handed the governing coalition a sharp rebuke Sunday in parliamentary elections marked by a record low turnout.

But Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, backed by his ruling alliance, said the showing wasn’t bad enough to make him resign.

Both Murayama’s Socialist Party and his dominant coalition ally, the Liberal Democrats, fell well short of their original targets. Together, they won half the contested seats in Parliament’s less powerful upper house.

Meanwhile, the main opposition party did better than expected.

The results suggested that many voters are dissatisfied with the government’s response to a lingering recession, and the vote underscored widespread public anxiety in the wake of a devastating earthquake and gassings blamed on a doomsday cult.

A record number of Japanese didn’t vote at all: Turnout was estimated at only 44 percent. That would be the first time in a national election that fewer than half of the electorate voted, although turnout has been declining over the past 20 years.

The main opposition New Frontier Party did well in Sunday’s voting, winning at least 39 of the 126 seats at stake, according to nearly complete official results.