Japan

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is smarting from his ruling party's dismal election showing on June 25.

A three-party coalition was returned to power in the election, but voters sliced the two-thirds majority it previously held in parliament's Lower House to just over half.

In Japan, the emperor is the symbol of the state. He has formal duties but no real power. The Diet (Kokkai), a two part legislative body, consists of a House of Representatives, with 500 members elected to four-year terms, and a House of Councillors, with 252 members elected to six-year terms. The Diet designates the Prime Minister.

Mori was voted in again as prime minister on July 4 and announced his new cabinet later the same day.

One interesting outcome of the election: 25-year-old Yoko Hara, fresh out of graduate school, was the youngest candidate voted in.

"I ran as one of the possibilities of finding a job," Hara said. She campaigned in a dark suit, as worn by all university students during their search for a job.

Female candidates are under-represented in the male-dominated world of Japanese politics.

In the June 25 election only seven percent of the total 480 seats up for grabs went to women.

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