Japan’s Top Party Regains Control

Japan’s largest political party regained control of the lower house of parliament Friday for the first time in four years after a former member returned to the fold.

Lawmaker Naoto Kitamura, who left the Liberal Democratic Party in 1993, rejoined the group, giving the party 251 seats in the powerful 500-seat House of Representatives.

The LDP lost their majority in the house, the more powerful of two legislative chambers, when a group of disgruntled members bolted the party four years ago.

Friday’s shift moved the LDP, now governing in coalition with two smaller parties, one step closer to regaining the sole control of the government it wielded from 1955 until the 1993 defections.

For now, the party will maintain its alliance with the Social Democratic Party and New Party Sakigake, said Chief Cabinet Secretary and LDP member Seiroku Kajiyama.

The party is still short of a majority in the upper house and will need the votes of those coalition partners to enact legislation there.

Rutaro Hashimoto, prime minister and party leader, led the LDP to a triumph in elections last fall, winning 239 of the 500 seats in the Lower House, just 12 short of a majority.