More people have cast their ballots ahead of the voting day for the House of Councilors election than for the poll in 2001, the home affairs ministry said Tuesday.
A total of 2,604,009 people had voted one week ahead of Sunday's election, up 8.43 percent from prevoting-day ballots cast in a comparative period for the 2001 Upper House election, it said.
The tally covered the period between June 25, one day after the campaigning for the election kicked off, and July 4.
An analyst said the strong showing is because many candidates' have urged voters to cast ballots early if they are unable to do so on election day.