Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba won in the second round of parliamentary voting, retaining his position after a disappointing election last month in which his coalition lost its majority in the lower house.
Ishiba, 67, took over as prime minister from Fumio Kishida, who resigned in September following a series of scandals that shook public confidence in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
In an extraordinary parliamentary session on Monday, Ishiba defeated Yoshihiko Noda, the leader of the main opposition party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.
As the leader of a minority government, Ishiba now faces the challenge of having to accommodate the demands of the opposition bloc to pass any future laws or budgets, raising concerns about a potential political deadlock in parliament.
Ishiba, a former defense minister, has earned a reputation in Japanese politics for openly criticizing figures within his own party, including Kishida and Japan’s longest-serving leader, Shinzo Abe.