AMONG a record 1503 candidates to stand in Japan's General Election was a haemophiliac infected with the HIV virus, who said in his campaign that he wanted to be an inspiration to fellow sufferers.

Satoru Ienishi, 36, who won a seat for the one-month-old Democratic Party, was one of 1800 haemophiliacs who contracted the virus that causes Aids from unheated blood products.

In Japan it is unusual for people with serious illnesses or disabilities to divulge their conditions publicly, owing to the stigma attached to them.-Reuter.

Tokyo, Sunday

PRIME Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto's Liberal Democratic Party narrowly failed to win a majority in Japan's General Election today and was considering forming a grand coalition of four parties.

Final figures showed the LDP had 239 seats, 12 short of the 251 it needed to govern alone in the 500-seat Lower House.

The result dashed LDP hopes of regaining the grip on power it has enjoyed for most of the post-war period, and signalled more of the political turmoil that has plagued Japan since the 1993 election that put the LDP out of office.

In the end, Japan's 98 million voters decided neither to give the conservative LDP a mandate to govern alone, nor to gamble on throwing power to untested political parties.

Their third choice was to stay away from the polls in record numbers, which led to a 59% voter turn-out, the lowest figure since the Second World War.

The election, held under a new system to clean up politics, had offered Japan the chance to end the lethargy caused by three years of unwieldy coalition wrangling.

However the hopes fizzled out into an inconclusive result likely to lead to more years of politics as usual and hamper efforts to reform the economy and bureaucracy.

The messy outcome leaves many unanswered questions about economic policies as the nation, emerging from a long slump, struggles to clear a path to future growth. The 28 seats the LDP added to the 211 it held in the old parliament ensured there would be no leadership challenge to Hashimoto, who has been Prime Minister since last January.

``We were not given a clear majority from voters, and we do not have a majority in the Upper House. Our stance is that we would welcome anybody or party (as coalition partners) that will agree with our policies,'' said a clearly disappointed Hashimoto.

The horse trading, which could last for a week or more, started immediately.

``The LDP intends to begin policy negotiations with Sakigake, the Social Democrats, and also the Democrats,'' said LDP secretary-general Koichi Kato.

In the outgoing coalition government, the LDP was the dominant partner in a three-way alliance with the Social Democratic Party and Sakigake, a small LDP splinter group.

The LDP, which ruled Japan for 38 years until the last election in 1993, came back into government in mid-1994 in an unlikely alliance with the Socialists and Sakigake.

``I trust that our friendship with the Social Democrats and Sakigake will stay in place,'' Hashimoto said.

The two junior coalition partners won a total of 17 seats, less than half the number they held in the old parliament, while the one-month-old Democrats, formed by defectors from the two parties, claimed 52 seats.

The main opposition Shinshinto (New Frontier Party) dropped four seats to 156 and the future of the party and its leader Ichiro Ozawa, an LDP defector from 1993, was in doubt.

``The party leadership will thoroughly review all aspects of the election, including the party leadership,'' Ozawa said.

The only clear winner in the poll was the Japan Communist Party, which nearly doubled its numbers to 26.

The election was held nearly one year ahead of schedule because of Hashimoto's belief that he could win sole power for the LDP amid an improving economy and success in cooling down opposition to the presence of US troops in Okinawa.

A new electoral system, which replaced the old multi-seat constituencies, was also thought to favour the LDP at the expense of smaller parties.-Reuter.