TOKYO, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's ruling coalition was projected to stay in power in Sunday's election, but his party suffered steep losses, potentially weakening him just weeks into the job of leading the world's no.3 economy.

MIKITAKA MASUYAMA, PROFESSOR, NATIONAL GRADUATE INSTITUTE FOR POLICY STUDIES

"I believe chances are next to nothing that some moves will come forth within the party to take down Kishida. I expect he will remain in his post."

"Things could become a little tricky for Kishida if he leads the party to defeat in the upper house election next year. But I don't think party leadership will come under criticism because of the results of this election."

YU UCHIYAMA, POLITICS PROFESSOR, TOKYO UNIVERSITY

"There's a lot of interest especially in Asia over whether Japan would try to revise their constitution, but that won't be possible with the ruling coalition from the looks of it. But the Japan Innovation Party looks like they've captured a lot of seats, so we may be seeing some sort of constitution-related coalition, even if the possibility of constitutional revision remains low."

KOICHI NAKANO, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR, SOPHIA UNIVERSITY

“If the projections are correct, then Kishida should be able to continue to govern, or start to govern, but maybe there’ll be a bit of a question mark over his leadership in view of the Upper House election next year. So I guess he’ll still try to have to show that he’s got something that’s different from (his predecessor Yoshihide) Suga.”

“But maybe he’ll emphasise economic security given that it’s being promoted by (Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Akira) Amari. (If Amari loses), it would be quite dramatic. I don’t recall any LDP secretary general losing his seat, at least in the single-member district. It would be a huge blow for the LDP. That would be quite embarrassing."

AIRO HINO, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR, WASEDA UNIVERSITY

"The coalition itself won't fall apart and the government will remain, but even given this, the number of seats they have is definitely decreasing and this could make managing parliament difficult."

"If the LDP manages to hang on to a sole majority, though, there probably won't be that much trouble. But next year, whether Kishida will be able to really hold things together in the run-up to the upper house election will depend on his policies showing results." (Reporting by Tokyo Bureau; Editing by William Mallard)