Abe's coalition scores big election win in Japan

A big upper house election win considerably strengthens Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling coalition, which now controls both Parliament chambers. As predicted by polls, the Liberal Democratic Party, which Abe helped bring back to power in December, and its junior coalition partner New Komeito easily won Sunday's upper house election. The coalition won 76 of the 121 seats up for grabs, Kyodo News reported. The win was seen as a victory for Abe's economic policies designed to bring the country out of years of chronic deflation. He can now pursue them with a firmer political hand. The victory also ended years of opposition control of the 242-seat upper house, the House of Councilors. Abe's party and its coalition partner now will have a total of 135 seats, far more than a majority. His LDP already has a majority in the powerful lower house. Abe's economic policies, popularly known as "Abenomics," include a number of stimulus measures and economic reforms to boost inflation, needed to end 15 years of deflation. One outcome of the policies already in place is the declining yen against the U.S. dollar, helping exports. The election results showed Abe has won the public's confidence and that, besides economic issues, the prime minister, who is seen as a political hawk, will be able to focus on other major issues, such as revising the country's pacifist constitution "I would like to meet the expectation of the Japanese people," Abe said after the vote, CNN reported. "Since the inauguration of my administration, we have been appealing that our policies are the only way to go. We believe that the Japanese people pushed us to make policy decisions and bring about the result." "It's done. Abe is in full control now," HSBC economist Frederic Neumann wrote in a research note, CNNMoney reported. "Yet his real test still lies ahead. He must urgently implement far-reaching reforms to make his economic revival stick."