 The premiership and foreign ministry portfolio were held by the head of each party for two years, and they switched roles in 1986.Post-World War II Japan has historically been dominated by the Liberal Democratic Party, but there was a brief coalition government formed after the 1993 election following LDP's first loss of its overall House of Representatives majority since 1955, winning only 223 out of 511 seats.The LDP government was replaced by an eight-party coalition government, which consisted of all of the previous opposition parties excluding the Japanese Communist Party, who together controlled 243 seats.