PM Abe wins big in Japan upper house poll

TOKYO: Voters handed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a thumping victory in upper house elections Sunday, exit polls showed, likely ushering in a new period of stability for politically volatile Japan.

The projected victory means both chambers will be under governmental control, unblocking the bottleneck that has hampered legislation for the last six short-term premiers.

That will strengthen Abe's hand as he tries to push through painful, but necessary, structural reforms aimed at dragging Japan out of two decades of economic malaise.

"A majority of voters wanted politics that can make decisions, and wanted stability in politics," Masahiko Komura, vice president of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, told national broadcaster NHK. "That must have brought about this result."

Exit polls by NHK showed the LDP and its junior partner New Komeito claimed at least 71 of the 121 seats being contested, and possibly as many as 80.

Other television stations predicted a similar margin of victory. There are 242 legislators in the upper house, serving six-year terms. Elections are held for half of the seats every three years.

Since romping to power in December's vote for the more powerful lower house, the hard-charging Abe has unleashed a wave of spending and pressured the central bank to flood the market with easy money.