Ruling coalition likely to lose key election: Exit polls

{ JAPAN } SETBACK FOR PM SHIGERU ISHIBA

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TOKYO: Exit polls show Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s ruling coalition is likely to lose a majority in the smaller of Japan's two parliamentary houses ina key election on Sunday, worsening the country’s political instability.

Voters were deciding half of the 248 seats in the upper house, the less powerful of the two chambers in Japan's Diet.

Ishiba has set the bar low, wanting a simple majority of 125 seats, which means his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito Liberal Democratic Party and its Buddhist-backed junior coalition partner Komeito need to win 50 to add to the 75 seats they already have. That is a big retreat from the 141 seats they had pre-election, but media surveys predict big setbacks for Ishiba.