海角大神

Voters in Japan have given the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, a mandate聽to continue with his economic program, after his Liberal Democratic聽Party (LDP) and its junior coalition partner won a comfortable victory聽in upper house elections聽on Sunday.

The result means that the governing coalition will hold majorities in聽both houses of the country鈥檚 parliament for the first time in six聽years, raising hopes of an end to the political deadlock that has seen聽several prime ministers come and go in quick succession.

In recent years, opposition parties have had control of the upper聽chamber, enabling them to block or delay legislation in what has聽become known as a 鈥渢wisted parliament.鈥�

While a low turnout indicated widespread apathy toward the election 鈥撀爄n which half of the upper house鈥檚 242 seats were contested 鈥� LDP聽officials interpreted the result as an endorsement of Abe鈥檚 attempts聽to lift the world's third-biggest economy out of almost two decades of聽stagnation.

Since becoming prime minister last December, Abe has implemented聽monetary easing and massive fiscal stimulus, but has yet to explain聽the third stage of 鈥淎benomics鈥� to address structural problems such as聽the rapidly ageing population, shrinking workforce, and huge public聽debt.

"People wanted politics that can make decisions and an administration聽with a stable grounding, which led to today's result," the LDP鈥檚 vice聽president, Masahiko Komura, told public broadcaster NHK. "'Abenomics' is proceeding smoothly and people want us to ensure the聽benefits reach them too. That feeling was strong."

Japanese media reported that the coalition was projected to win at聽least 70 of the 121 seats being contested聽on Sunday. The official聽result will be announced early聽Monday.

Nationalist agenda

With no elections due for another three years, Abe is expected to聽devote more effort to his nationalist 鈥渧alues agenda,鈥� even at the聽risk of raising tensions with China and South Korea.

Abe, a hawk whose first term as prime minister in 2006 ended after a聽year following an upper house defeat and ill health, wants to revise聽Japan鈥檚 pacifist constitution to give its self-defense forces a more聽robust security role.

Any attempt to move away from the military鈥檚 strictly defensive role聽would anger China and South Korea, with which Japan is already聽embroiled in disputes over island territories.

Abe also faces potentially damaging domestic challenges.

He must decide whether to go ahead with unpopular plans the LDP聽supported as an opposition party to raise the sales tax from 5 percent聽to 8 percent next April 鈥� a move that some experts could put the聽brakes on the fledgling economic recovery.

Restarting nuclear

In addition, the LDP is the only party that opposes a phasing out of聽nuclear power, a measure聽supported by a slight majority聽of Japanese聽voters. Abe is expected to push for the restart of several reactors聽that were taken offline after the meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi聽nuclear power plant in March 2011.

Currently, only two of Japan鈥檚 50 working reactors are in operation,聽and Abe and the country's influential business lobby argue that the聽economic recovery is being hampered by soaring cost of oil and gas聽imports.

The election dealt another blow to the left-of-center Democratic Party聽of Japan [DPJ], which ended more than 50 years of LDP domination when聽it won the general election by a landslide in 2009.

The DPJ was soundly defeated in last December鈥檚 lower house election,聽and was projected to win 21 or fewer seats in Sunday鈥檚 upper house聽poll.