Amid the assassination of former Prime Minister Abe, Japan's House of Councilors elections began at 7 a.m.
In Japan, which is a bicameral system, the House of Councilors is equivalent to the Senate, and the House of Councilors elections, held every three years, elect half of the House of Representatives for a six-year term.
The number of seats in the House of Representatives is 248, and in this election, 125 (including one vacancy), half of the House of Councilors, will be elected as constituencies and proportional representation.
The results of exit polls by the media will be released after the voting ends at 8 pm, and the outline of the election results is expected to come out between midnight and tomorrow morning.
What is of interest is the extent to which the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which occurred just before the election, will affect the election.
Experts in Japan are predicting that this election is highly likely to work in favor of the ruling party as sympathy for former Prime Minister Abe has gathered.
Local media predicted that the ruling parties (LDP and Komeito) would easily maintain a majority seat in this election.
It is expected that the constitutional amendment force, which is considered to be in agreement with the constitutional amendment in the direction of specifying the Self-Defense Forces in the constitution, maintains the level of two-thirds that meets the requirements of the constitutional amendment proposal.
As security threats have increased due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, China's advance into the sea, and North Korea's missile launch, in Ilbong, strengthening defense capabilities and constitutional amendment are emerging as key issues in this election.
However, it is difficult to observe the extent of the impact of Abe's absence, who has led the voice for constitutional amendment within the LDP in the future.
If a victory is obtained in this election as well as in the House of Representatives election in October last year, the so-called 'Golden Three Years' will be held for Prime Minister Kishida without large-scale elections for the next three years, which is expected to lay the foundation for stable state management.
In particular, the position of Prime Minister Kishida according to the election results is expected to affect Korea-Japan relations as the Korean government began to take steps to improve Korea-Japan relations with the inauguration of the Yun Seok-yeol administration.