Japan's Ruling Party Faces Narrow Election Margin

Japanese voters are experiencing a rare nail-biting election scenario, with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) facing the possibility of losing its majority in the lower house. The election comes just a month after Shigeru Ishiba, the 67-year-old former defense minister, was narrowly selected as the new Prime Minister. Ishiba's leadership is being tested as the LDP enters the election under pressure from a public outraged by a long-standing political finance scandal involving millions of dollars in undocumented funds. The scandal led to the replacement of cabinet ministers by former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in an attempt to contain the damage. Opinion surveys suggest that the LDP, along with its junior coalition partner, may fall short of a majority, marking their worst result since 2009. Voters are also concerned about rising prices and the impact of the party's slush fund scandal. The election has been dubbed the tightest in years, with a record number of women, 314 out of 1,344 candidates, running for office. Ishiba has pledged to address issues such as rural revitalization and the country's "quiet emergency" of falling population numbers.