Kishida Takes LDP Loss in All 3 By-Elections "Seriously"

   Tokyo, April 30 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, also president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said Tuesday he takes "seriously" the party's defeat in all three House of Representatives by-elections held Sunday.
   "I must fulfill my responsibility by tackling the challenges I face and producing results," he told reporters at the prime minister's office in Tokyo.
   "I'm not at all considering (dissolving the Lower House for a general election), Kishida added.
   In the Lower House by-elections, the LDP, mired in a slush fund scandal involving intraparty factions, did not field its candidates in the No. 15 constituency in Tokyo and the No. 3 district in Nagasaki Prefecture, southwestern Japan, while fielding a candidate in the No. 1 constituency in the western prefecture of Shimane.
   The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan swept all three elections.

(2024/04/30-13:10)