An Upper House special electoral reform committee got off to a rough start Monday as opposition lawmakers boycotted the first meeting to protest the ruling bloc's forcible move to revise the chamber's election roster system.

Amid protests from opposition lawmakers, committee members from the Liberal Democratic Party, New Komeito and the New Conservative Party elected Hiroyuki Kurata, an LDP member, as chairman of the panel.

The session was to open at 1 p.m., but was delayed by 40 minutes as members of four major opposition parties -- the Democratic Party of Japan, Japanese Communist Party, Social Democratic Party and Liberal Party -- blocked the entrance to the committee room, locking out some coalition members.