Campaigning for Sunday’s Upper House election entered its final week Monday, with at least one media poll showing that the Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito ruling coalition could lose its majority in the chamber.
A Mainichi Shimbun poll, conducted jointly with JNN over the weekend, indicated that the LDP and Komeito could end up with fewer than 50 of the 125 contested seats in the Upper House. If that happens, they would no longer hold a majority in either house of parliament, resulting in the possible resignation of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba along with further political uncertainty and instability.
The same poll also predicted that major opposition parties, including the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the Democratic Party for the People and Nippon Ishin no Kai, were likely to gain seats or end up around their current levels, while the smaller extreme right-leaning nationalist party Sanseito was expected to do well.
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