Since the last general election in 2021, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was caught in a series of political crises, firstly the assassination of Shinzo Abe in 2022, which led to the heightened scrutiny against the allegations surrounding the Unification Church and its link to his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

Ishiba also indicated that those who had involved scandal, whether they had been sanctioned or not, would be banned from running double candidacy in single-seat districts and proportional representation blocs, which was expected to affect at least 30 such candidates.

[30] On 3 October, Seiji Maehara, leader of the Free Education For All which commanded four seats in the Diet, announced that his party would join the Nippon Ishin no Kai after months of talks for merger and would run as Ishin-endorsed candidates in the upcoming election.

However, House of Representatives member Atsushi Suzuki, who would run in the Kanagawa 18th district, did not join the party, due to its competition with a Ishin candidate in the same constituency.

[34] On 20 October, LDP Secretary-General Hiroshi Moriyama floated the idea of expanding the coalition framework by "holding discussions with political parties that have the same policies and are committed to developing the country".

[36] He also declined to form a coalition with the CDP given that the LDP and Komeito Party did not have a majority, citing differences in their security, energy, and economic policies.

[43] Ishiba insisted that the funds were not provided to candidates but to the branches as "activity expenses", with the party dismissing the report as having "distorted the facts and caused a misunderstanding".

[46] On the morning of 19 October, Atsunobu Usuda, a 49-year-old man from Kawaguchi in Saitama Prefecture, threw firebombs at the LDP headquarters and crashed a van into a barrier at the nearby Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo.

According to his father, Usuda had previously been active in anti-nuclear protests and had also expressed dissatisfaction with Japan's electoral system, where candidates are required to deposit hefty sums of money to stand.

CDP leader Yoshihiko Noda criticised Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's dissolution of the Diet as a "cover-up" of the scandal and that "a change of government is the greatest political reform".

Ishiba said that he would consider abolishing the policy activity expenses in the future but maintained that "it is legal under the current system" and the party would not use it "restrainedly" when questioned by DPP leader, Yuichiro Tamaki.

[52] Baba questioned Ishiba's determination and feasibility in reviewing the U.S.–Japan Status of Forces Agreement, a pledge made during the recent LDP leadership race.

[50] Color key:   Exit poll Voter turnout was 53.84%, around two percentage points down from 2021 and the third lowest in the postwar era,[56] while the number of female candidates reached the record high of 73,[57] equivalent to 16% of the House of Representatives' composition.

[59] Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he accepted the "harsh judgement" of the voters "humbly and solemnly" and pledged to become a political party that was "more in line with the will of the people".

[60] 74% of voters in a Kyodo News exit poll considered the slush fund scandal when casting their ballots, with 68% of the LDP supporters also thought so.

[61] Komeito leader Keiichi Ishii also pointed out that the payment of 20 million yen to party branches headed by the scandal-hit candidates "had a significant impact on the election campaign".

[63] Seven out of nine former Abe faction members, including former Minister of Education Hakubun Shimomura,[59] who were involved in the slush fund scandal and ran as independents, lost in the election, except for Yasutoshi Nishimura and Koichi Hagiuda.

"[60] Despite falling short of its goal of winning five seats, the newly established Conservative Party of Japan gained three seats and entered the Diet for the first time, with former Nagoya mayor Takashi Kawamura being declared the winner in the Aichi 1st district and two other candidates won the Tokai proportional representation block and Kinki proportional representation block.

[70] After the election, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba expressed his desire to continue in his position, saying at a press conference that he would "fulfill his responsibilities by tackling the current severe challenges".

[72] At a press conference on 28 October, Ishiba also said that it was "essential that people realize that the LDP has visibly changed" and announced the abolition of policy activity expenses.

[75] Despite Ishiba's decision to remain as party leader, LDP Councillors Kimi Onoda and Hiroshi Yamada and former Minister of State for Economic Security Takayuki Kobayashi, all considered close to former Minister of State for Economic Security Sanae Takaichi who was the main rival to Ishiba in the leadership election a month prior, called on the party executives to bear responsibilities.

[79] Ishin, which saw its proportional representation vote count fall by about three million from the previous election, also faced an outpouring of criticism from local assembly members in its home base of Osaka, who blamed the party's initial decision to align itself with the LDP on amending the Political Funds Control Law for the "nationwide headwinds".

[83] On 30 October, the LDP also brought back to its parliamentary group four members whom it had de-selected due to the fundraising scandal: Hiroshige Seko, Katsuei Hirasawa, Yasutoshi Nishimura and Kōichi Hagiuda, who ran as independents and won.

[84][85] Additionally, the party invited two independents who ran against and defeated LDP-endorsed candidates, Satoshi Mitazono and Ken Hirose, to join the group.

[84] Mizuho Fukushima, leader of the SDP, which won one seat, signalled a "strong possibility" to vote for Noda in the prime ministerial election, which the party had done in an extraordinary Diet session a month prior.

[90] Ishin Secretary-General Fujita Fumitake expressed his disapproval of joining the LDP-Komeito coalition government or cooperating with the CDP, but stated his intention to hold discussions with each party on a policy-by-policy basis.

[94] Ishin and DPP's proposals which could lead to 70 invalid votes in the run-off, were criticised by CDP Secretary-General Junya Ogawa, who said that the exercise of the right to nominate prime minister was the "heaviest task" of a Diet member.

[97] On 11 November, Shigeru Ishiba was reelected as prime minister of a minority government during an extraordinary session of the Diet with 221 votes, defeating Yoshihiko Noda who received 160.