Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has pledged to stay in office despite receiving a major blow in Sunday’s snap election he called himself to shore up more support for his party.

Ishiba told reporters on Monday he would not allow a “political vacuum” to occur after Japan’s ruling coalition lost its parliamentary majority in a significant defeat for his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has governed the country almost continuously since 1955.

Ishiba, 67, called the vote days after assuming office on October 1. But voters, angry at a funding scandal, punished the LDP by reducing it to 191 seats, down from 259 in the 465-member lower house of parliament. LDP’s coalition partner Komeito won 24 seats.

The snap election was the governing coalition’s worst result in 15 years, exit polls and results reported by national broadcaster NHK and other media showed. The yen hit a three-month low as results came out.

Despite this, Ishiba said: “I want to fulfill my duty by protecting people’s lives, protecting Japan.”

“People’s suspicion, mistrust and anger” at the slush fund scandal – which saw LDP figures pocket money from fundraising events and which helped sink his predecessor Fumio Kishida – factored in the election result, Ishiba said.

“I will enact fundamental reform regarding the issue of money and politics,” Ishiba stressed, repeating that voters had delivered a “severe judgement” on the party.

Japanese media had earlier speculated that if LDP lost the majority, Ishiba could quit, becoming the nation’s shortest-serving prime minister since the end of World War II.

The LDP’s election committee chief, former Premier Junichiro Koizumi’s son Shinjiro Koizumi, resigned on Monday.

Ishiba is expected to seek to head a minority government, with the divided opposition seen as likely incapable of forming a coalition of their own, analysts said.

But the prime minister on Monday said he was not considering a broader coalition “at this point”. As mandated by the constitution, the parties now have 30 days to figure out a grouping that can govern.

The opposition, under former premier Yoshihiko Noda’s Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP), made significant gains, which raised its projected seat tally to 148 from 96 at the last election.

“Voters chose which party would be the best fit to push for political reforms,” Noda said late on Sunday, adding that the “LDP-Komeito administration cannot continue”.

Japan’s government and governing coalition officials are planning to convene a special parliament session to select the prime minister on November 11, Kyodo News reported on Monday, quoting multiple unnamed sources.

“Lawmakers aligned with [former Prime Minister Shinzo] Abe were cold-shouldered under Ishiba, so they could potentially pounce on the opportunity to take their revenge,” Yu Uchiyama, political science professor at the University of Tokyo, told the AFP news agency.

“But at the same time, with the number of LDP seats reduced so much, they might take the high road and support Ishiba for now, thinking it’s not the time for infighting,” he added.

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Former world No. 1 Naomi Osaka intends to return to professional tennis in 2024, the 25-year-old said in an interview with ESPN on Wednesday.

The four-time major champion – who welcomed a baby girl in July with her boyfriend, rapper Cordae – said she plans to play a busy schedule next year.

“It’s definitely way more tournaments than I used to play,” Osaka told ESPN. “So, I think some people will be happy with that.”

“I think it’s because I realized that I don’t know how the beginning of the year is going to go for me. I don’t know the level of play and I think I have to ease into it. So at the very least, I’m going to set myself up for a very good end of the year,” Osaka said.

Osaka, who has not played since the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo in September 2022, has previously said she planned to return to tennis in 2024 for the Australian Open, a tournament she has won on two previous occasions.

Osaka was asked if her break from tennis made her miss it, to which she responded “definitely.”

“I’ve been watching matches and I’m like, ‘I wish I was playing too,’” Osaka said. “But I’m in this position now and I’m very grateful. I really love my daughter a lot, but I think it really fueled a fire in me.”

Osaka took some time away from competitive tennis and made several highly publicized disclosures about her struggles with mental health following an incident in 2021, where she was visibly stressed and emotional while addressing the media during a mandatory news conference at Roland Garros.

She subsequently pulled out of the French Open that year and revealed she had “suffered long bouts of depression” since winning her first major championship in 2018.

Osaka was in attendance at the US Open in New York on Wednesday. She also participated the same day in a forum on mental health at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, joined by USA Olympic swimming legend Michael Phelps, US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, and Dr. Brian Hainline, chairman of the US Tennis Association’s board and NCAA chief medical officer.

Osaka said she learned a lot from talking about her experiences with mental health and becoming an advocate for mental health awareness.

“I feel like I am someone that’s learning all the time. Obviously, I learned a lot from the talk as I was talking,” Osaka said. “I would say my role is just raising awareness and letting people know that they’re not alone.

“Physical pain and mental pain are sort of the same to me. We have doctors for physical health but when we talk about mental health it’s not as well received, so just raising awareness on that.”

She was also asked about her comments previously that she felt “lonely” while she was pregnant.

“I definitely only know this world, the tennis world,” Osaka said. “Just being away from that for a long time, it was new for me. I think it was just the new situation and not being able to train like I wanted to, it made me feel like I would just stay at home. … It felt like a lot of restrictions.”

Japan’s incoming prime minister Shigeru Ishiba said on Monday he aimed to call snap elections for October 27, as equities plunged on a strong yen and fears that tax hikes are on the cards.

Ishiba, who was set to be formally appointed as premier on Tuesday after winning the leadership of the ruling party, supports the Bank of Japan’s drive to hike interest rates and has said “there is room” to raise corporate levies.

The leadership contest for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has governed almost uninterrupted for decades, went down to the wire on Friday, with right-winger Sanae Takaichi tipped to win when markets closed.

With Takaichi a fan of former prime minister Shinzo Abe’s unorthodox “Abenomics” economic policies of ultra-low interest rates and tax cuts, the prospect of her winning sent stocks higher and the yen lower.

Takaichi, an arch-nationalist, would also have been the first woman prime minister in a country where men still dominate politics and business.

Ishiba, 67, is a fierce critic of Abe and his last-gasp victory — on his fifth attempt — sent the yen soaring to around 142 per dollar from around 146.50. Investors dumped stocks on Monday, with exporters among the worst hit.

The Nikkei index closed down 4.8 per cent, with Toyota tumbling 7.6pc and real estate company Mitsui Fudosan off 8.7pc.

Ishiba confirmed on Monday media reports that he aimed to call snap elections for October 27, saying it was “important for the new government to be judged by the people as soon as possible”.

LDP elders are banking on Ishiba, a self-confessed defence “geek” fond of making model ships and planes, to boost the party’s popularity.

Its poll ratings fell sharply under outgoing premier Fumio Kishida, hit by a damaging party slush fund scandal and anger over rising prices.

Defence ties

Ishiba vowed on Friday to restore confidence in the LDP after the scandal and to shore up defence ties among neighbours rattled by recent Chinese actions.

He is considering appointing as finance minister Katsunobu Kato, a former chief cabinet secretary who ran in the LDP leadership race, media reports said.

Gen Nakatani, a veteran former defence minister, will return to his old job while Takeshi Iwaya, another former defence minister, will come in as foreign minister, the reports said.

Kishida pledged to double defence spending and deepen military cooperation with the United States and other allies in the region rattled by China’s rise and an unpredictable North Korea.

Ishiba backs the creation of an “Asian Nato” and has said Japan should respond more strongly to Chinese or Russian breaches of its airspace or waters, as has happened repeatedly in recent weeks.

But questions remain over how the government plans to pay for the upgrade and also find enough recruits for the military among Japan’s shrinking population.

Taro Saito, senior economist at NLI Research Institute, told AFP that Ishiba has so far focused on how to improve public finances in Japan, which has one of the world’s highest debt mountains.

“He seems not so interested in policies to boost economic growth, although what is most important for Japan is low growth rather than fiscal health,” Saito said.

Chief cabinet secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, who is reportedly set to remain under Ishiba, declined to comment on Monday on the fall in stocks but said the government would “make judgements with calm heads”.

“We will continue closely watching trends in financial markets at home and abroad with a sense of vigilance and, while cooperating closely with the Bank of Japan, we will do our best in management of the economy and finance,” he said.

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Cruising at a depth of 8,336 meters (over 27,000 feet) just above the seabed, a young snailfish has become the deepest fish ever filmed by scientists during a probe into the abyss of the northern Pacific Ocean.

Scientists from University of Western Australia and Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology released footage of the snailfish on Sunday filmed last September by sea robots in deep trenches off Japan.

Along with the filming the deepest snailfish, the scientists physically caught two other specimens at 8,022 meters and set another record for the deepest catch.

Previously, the deepest snailfish ever spotted was at 7,703 meters in 2008, while scientists had never been able to collect fish from anywhere below 8,000 meters.

“What is significant is that it shows how far a particular type of fish will descend in the ocean,” said marine biologist Alan Jamieson, founder of the Minderoo-UWA Deep Sea Research Centre, who led the expedition.

Scientists are filming in the trenches off Japan as part of a 10-year study into the deepest fish populations in the world. Snailfish are members of Liparidae family, and while most snailfish live in shallow water, others survive at some of the greatest depths ever recorded, Jamieson said.

During the two-month survey last year, three “landers” – automatic sea robots fitted with high-resolution cameras – were dropped into three trenches – the Japan, Izu-Ogasawara and Ryukyu trenches – at varying depths.

In the Izu-Ogasawara trench, footage showed the deepest snailfish hovering calmly alongside other crustaceans on the seabed.

Jamieson classified the fish as a juvenile and said younger deep sea snailfish often stay as deep as possible to avoid being eaten by bigger predators that swim at shallower depths.

Another clip shot at between 7,500 and 8,200 meters in the same trench showed a colony of fish and crustaceans munching at bait tied to an undersea robot.

Images of the two captured snailfish – identified as Pseudoliparis belyaevi – provide a rare glimpse of the unique features that help the deep sea species survive the extreme environment.

They have tiny eyes, a translucent body, and their lack of swim bladder, which helps other fish float, works to their advantage, Jamieson said.

The professor said the Pacific Ocean is particularly conducive to vibrant activity due to its warm southern current, which encourages sea creatures to go deeper, while its abundant marine life provides a good source of food for bottom feeders.

Scientists would like to know more about creatures living at extreme depths, but cost is the constraint, Jamieson said, adding that each lander alone costs them $200,000 to assemble and operate.

“The challenges are that technology has been expensive and scientists don’t have a lot of money,” he said.