USD/JPY is above 153 on the Japanese election result – yen plunge

USD/JPY is just above 153.00, a 70 or so point jump from its late Friday level.

The Japanese election in summary:

• Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its coalition partner Komeito have, combined, lost their majority
• LDP had a majority in its own right going into the election, gone now of course
• LDP and Komeito have 208 seats
• 22 seats left to declare
• A party needs a majority of 233 seats in the lower house of Parliament, the Diet, to govern alone. Even LDP + Lomeito have not reached this threshold
• the largest opposition party, the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP), won 143 seats

Counting will continue soon.

The result of the general election has triggered uncertainty about how the world’s fourth-largest economy will be governed. As I posted on Thursday in my preview (ruling LDP could lose up to 50 of its 247 seats) it looks like LDP + Komeito will negotiate with a small party to get across the 233 line.

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.