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.