A day after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe set July 10 as the date for the upcoming Upper House election, the nation's ruling and opposition parties wasted no time Thursday launching into campaign mode.

Opposition parties are forming an uncharacteristically united front in an attempt to take down the ruling coalition of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party and its partner Komeito, which they say has failed to deliver on economic policy promises and put the country at risk with controversial security legislation.

The main opposition Democratic Party, Japanese Communist Party and other opposition forces have banded together to endorse single candidates in all 32 contested single-member electoral districts.