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TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling coalition suffered heavy losses in elections on Sunday, losing its majority in the upper house of parliament, exit polls said.
Public broadcaster NHK said Abe's coalition had probably lost around half of the seats it was defending.
It projected that the coalition won anywhere between 31 and 43 seats out of the 76 it was defending.
Private broadcaster TBS put the coalition's victory at 34 seats, while Nippon Television gave a figure of 38. Official results were expected later in the day.
Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) said it would hold meetings to decide on the next move.
"The ballot counting has just started. We will never know until all the votes are counted," Yoshio Yatsu, the party's committee chief for the elections, said in a televised interview.
An exit poll by the Nikkei business daily said that the LDP's coalition partner, the Buddhist-oriented New Komeito, was also struggling.
"It is possible that the election outcome will result in questioning of the responsibility of the LDP executives including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe," the Nikkei said in its online edition.
The defeat does not automatically force Abe out of office as his coalition enjoys a strong majority in the lower house of parliament.
Analysts have said that the ruling coalition was looking to see just how bad the results were before deciding the next move.
- AFP/so
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