Voting began Sunday in an Upper House election that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has billed as a chance to pass judgment on his economic policies. Opposition parties, however, are focused on preventing a resounding victory for the prime minister that would allow him to take the next step toward revising the pacifist Constitution.
Polling stations opened at 7 a.m. and were to close at 8 p.m., with media exit polls generally published immediately afterward and official results later in the evening.
Media surveys show Abe¡¯s Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner Komeito are likely to win a simple majority of the 121 seats in contention. With support from two smaller conservative parties, the prime minister has a good chance of gaining the two-thirds of seats in the chamber needed to embark on constitutional change.
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