TOKYO �� Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's gamble on an early election may have won him a chance to lead Japan through 2021.
Abe's ruling coalition retained its two-thirds majority in the 465-member lower house in elections Sunday. That boosts his chances at winning another term next year as head of his Liberal Democratic Party, which could make him Japan's longest serving leader.
Abe deflected questions Sunday about his future and called for humility �� signaling a lesson learned after scandals hurt his approval ratings this year. Still, he said the victory showed "the people want us to move forward based on a stable political foundation and achieve results."
The landslide win �� helped by a disparate and weak opposition ��paves the way for more ultra-easy monetary policy that has boosted Japanese stocks to record highs and helped Asia's second-biggest economy grow for six straight quarters. Yet pressure is also growing for Abe to tackle Japan's swollen debt, boost stagnant wages and overhaul the labor market to replenish a rapidly aging workforce.
Unofficial tallies showed the LDP winning 283 seats and its coalition partner Komeito taking 29 �� roughly similar to the split after the 2014 election. Five parties and independents split the rest. The winners of 10 seats had yet to be determined.
The Constitutional Democratic Party, set up only about two weeks ago by former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano after its predecessor party split up, won 50 seats. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike's upstart Party of Hope, which briefly jumped in opinion polls last month, took 49 seats.
Koike was in Paris on Sunday to attend a climate change conference. In a televised interview, she called it a "tough result" and apologized for causing "unpleasant feelings through my words and actions."
In power since 2012, Abe touted his economic record on the campaign trail. Unemployment is at less than 3 percent and a weakened currency has bolstered exports.
One major decision for Abe over the next few months will be whether to retain Haruhiko Kuroda as Bank of Japan governor when his term expires in April. Some LDP members have expressed concern about the central bank's unprecedented easing, which included surprise moves to introduce negative interest rates and an innovative yield-curve control program.
The two-thirds majority would give Abe the numbers to revise the pacifist constitution in place since World War II, which he considers necessary to clarify the legal status of Japan's Self Defense Forces. Abe has called for more pressure on North Korea and strengthened the U.S. alliance by cozying up to President Donald Trump, who is scheduled to visit Japan next month.
The number of parliamentary seats was cut to 465 from 475 in this election as part of a reform aimed at reducing the excessive weight given to rural votes. The ruling coalition received roughly the same share of seats it had before.
The LDP is to vote in September on a new leader, who would effectively become prime minister. Fumio Kishida, who heads one of the LDP's biggest factions, declined to comment on the party's leadership contest.
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(Jason Clenfield, Takashi Hirokawa and Emi Nobuhiro contributed to this report.)
