Japan’s governing party lost its majority in parliamentary elections on Sunday, as voters delivered an emphatic rejection of the status quo, throwing Japanese politics into its most uncertain period in years.

       The Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed Japan for all but four years since 1955, lost more than 50 seats in an election for the House of Representatives, the influential lower chamber of Parliament, according to the public broadcaster, NHK.

       For more than a decade, elections in Japan had taken on a rubber-stamp quality for the conservative Liberal Democrats. This time, a wearied public angered by a long-simmering political finance scandal, rising inflation and the burdens of raising families inflicted a humiliating blow to the party just one month after it anointed Shigeru Ishiba as the new prime minister.

       The defeat was even more pronounced as the L.D.P. could not even secure a majority in the 465-seat chamber through the party’s coalition with its traditional partner, Komeito.

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       The Liberal Democrats, who went into the election with 247 seats, ended the night with fewer than 200, with some cabinet ministers losing in their districts. Together with Komeito, the political arm of Soka Gakkai, a Buddhist sect, the coalition won fewer than the 233 they needed to retain a majority. The opposition, led by the Constitutional Democratic Party, won at least 250 seats.

       Just two weeks earlier, such a result had seemed unlikely. But in the early hours of Monday morning the Liberal Democrats were forced to consider whether they could expand their coalition to retain power or whether a group of opposition parties could come together to form a government.

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