According to analysts, Ishiba, who was only elected chairman of the party on October 1, may remain in office even shorter than former Japanese prime minister and LDP chairman Sosuke Uno. Uno was in power for just 68 days after being forced to resign in 1989 after his affair with a geisha was revealed.

“All polls showed that the LDP would lose seats. I predicted they would lose about 30 seats, so losing 65 seats was a surprise,” said Go Ito, professor of politics and international relations at Tokyo Meiji University.

“A defeat on this scale shows how angry the people are with the party, and the biggest problem is the LDP members involved in the slush fund scandal,” Ito told This Week in Asia. He was referring to the scandal that emerged last year, in which dozens of politicians and party accountants siphoned off 600 million yen (US$4 million).

Ishiba was elected party leader because he was not involved in any crime and promised the public that he would hold party members accountable for the funding scandal. But his promise was dashed just days before the general election when the party, instead of fulfilling its pledge to cut campaign funds for politicians linked to the scandal, was forced to confirm it was quietly subsidizing some of them.