Tokyo (AFP) - Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s coalition lost its upper house majority in elections on Sunday, local media projected, in a debacle that could end his short premiership.

Ishiba’s governing coalition was already humiliatingly forced into a minority government after lower house elections in October, shortly after he became prime minister and called the snap vote.

Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its partner Komeito won around 41 of the 125 upper house seats contested on Sunday, short of the 50 needed to retain a majority, Nippon TV and TBS projected, based on exit polls.

National broadcaster NHK projected that the LDP could win anything between 27 and 41 seats and Komeito between five and 12, making retaining a majority “difficult”.

The right-wing populist party Sanseito was meanwhile projected to have made strong gains, winning between 10 and 22 seats, adding to the two it already holds in the 248-seat chamber.

Ishiba, 68, a self-avowed policy “geek” seen as a safe pair of hands when he won the LDP leadership in September, was tight-lipped late Sunday about his future.

“It’s a difficult situation, and we have to take it very humbly and seriously,” Ishiba told broadcaster NHK. Asked about his future, he said only that he “cannot speak lightly of it”.

“We can’t do anything until we see the final results, but we want to be very aware of our responsibility,” Ishiba added.

“Ishiba may be replaced by someone else, but it’s not clear who will be the successor,” Hidehiro Yamamoto, politics and sociology professor at the University of Tsukuba, told AFP.

Ishiba’s centre-right LDP has governed Japan almost continuously since 1955, albeit with frequent changes of leader.

Ishiba took over in September on his fifth attempt and immediately called elections.

But this backfired and the vote left the LDP and its small coalition partner Komeito needing support from opposition parties, stymying its legislative agenda.

- Trumped -

Many voters are angry about rising prices and falling living standards.

At one Tokyo polling station on Sunday, 54-year-old voter Atsushi Matsuura told AFP: “Commodity prices are going up, but I am more worried that salaries aren’t increasing.”

Not helping is lingering resentment about an LDP funding scandal, and US tariffs of 25 percent due to bite from August 1.

Japanese imports are already subject to a 10-percent tariff, while the auto industry, which accounts for eight percent of jobs, is reeling from a 25-percent levy.

Despite Ishiba securing an early meeting with US President Donald Trump in February, and sending his trade envoy to Washington seven times, there has been no trade accord.

Trump poured cold water on the prospects of an agreement last week, saying Japan won’t “open up their country”.

“We will not easily compromise,” Ishiba said this month.

- ‘Japanese first’ -

The last time the LDP lost power was in 2009, when the now-defunct Democratic Party of Japan governed for a rocky three years.

Today, the opposition is fragmented, and chances are slim that the parties can form an alternative government.

The “Japanese-first” Sanseito wants “stricter rules and limits” on immigration, opposes “globalism” and “radical” gender policies, and wants a rethink on decarbonisation and vaccines.

Last week, it was forced to deny any links to Moscow – which has backed populist parties elsewhere – after a candidate was interviewed by Russian state media.

“They put into words what I had been thinking about but couldn’t put into words for many years,” one voter told AFP at a Sanseito rally.