Beleaguered Japan PM faces down resignation calls

TOKYO (AFP) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday faced down calls to resign after voters handed his conservative party a landmark defeat.

Abe has ruled out quitting even though his Liberal Democratic Party lost control of the upper house of parliament, creating political gridlock in the world's second-largest economy.

The Liberal Democrats, who have been in power nearly continuously since 1955 and still control the more powerful lower house, lost a majority for the first time in nine years.

It is the first time ever that the party is not the single largest in the upper house.

The party's leadership met Monday and agreed to keep Abe, who got to work on a cabinet reshuffle, domestic news agencies said.

But rebels within the party openly questioned the premier's insistence on staying on.

"Many voters decided that Prime Minister Abe, or his government, isn't qualified for the job," said Taro Kono, a maverick lawmaker from the party's liberal wing.

Abe, Japan's first leader born after World War II, has championed conservative causes such as rewriting the constitution.

But his approval ratings have tumbled due to a slew of scandals involving his cabinet and revelations of gross mismanagement of the pension system, a sensitive issue in a rapidly ageing country.

"He cannot carry on like before," Kono told Fuji television. "The problems in his cabinet took a heavy toll on votes. He must correct what he has to correct."

Sunday's election did not involve the lower house, where Abe maintains a solid majority inherited from his predecessor Junichiro Koizumi.

But members of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, which is set to gain control of the upper house, said they would push for Abe to quit.

"The Abe cabinet couldn't win a mandate from voters. We will demand the resignation of the cabinet," said Katsuya Ogawa, a newly elected party lawmaker.