In Japan, voting is underway for elections to the lower house. The snap election was announced by Shigeru Ishiba three days after he was selected as the leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) before he had been officially sworn in as prime minister. Mr. Ishiba took over as prime minister after being voted in by the ruling party following his predecessor Fumio Kishida make a surprise decision to step down back in August. LDP had held 247 of 465 seats in the lower house, while its coalition partner, Komeito, had 32. A party needs 233 seats to control the house. Of the 465 seats up for grabs in the country’s 50th House of Representatives election, 289 will go to directly elected lawmakers from single-seat constituencies nationwide, while another 176 winners will come through a proportional representation system that divides the country into 11 constituencies.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who heads the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), has set a modest goal of retaining at least 233 seats for the ruling coalition, enough to maintain a majority in the powerful lower chamber of Parliament. Since the 2012 election, when the LDP returned to power, it has won a majority in the 465-seat lower house on its own in four consecutive elections.