Japan’s ruling alliance likely to lose upper house majority, exit poll says

A voter casts her ballot in the upper house election at a polling station in Tokyo, Japan on July 20, 2025 [Manami Yamada/Reuters]

Japan’s ruling coalition is likely to lose its majority in the upper house, according to an exit poll by local media, potentially fuelling political instability in the world’s fourth largest economy.

Voters in Japan cast their ballots on Sunday in an upper house election which was seen as a test of the popularity of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and his ruling coalition.