Japanese media exit polls: Ruling coalition heads to victory

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, center, and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, smiles as he places a red rosette on the name of his Liberal Democratic Party's winning candidate during ballot counting for the parliamentary upper house elections at the party headquarters in Tokyo, Sunday, July 10, 2016. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi) (The Associated Press)

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Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, answers a question from reporter during a TV interview on the ballot counting of the parliamentary upper house election at their party headquarters in Tokyo, Sunday, July 10, 2016. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi) (The Associated Press)

An election staff member carries a ballot box for voting at a ballot counting center in Tokyo, Sunday, July 10, 2016. Japan's ruling coalition was a clear winner in Sunday's parliamentary election, Japanese media exit polls indicated, paving the way for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to push ahead with his economic revival policies, but also possibly changing the nation's postwar pacifist constitution.(AP Photo/Koji Sasahara) (The Associated Press)

TOKYO – Japanese media exit polls say the ruling coalition is headed to victory in the country's parliamentary election.

Several major TV news shows and the Kyodo News agency cited their exit polls and reported almost as soon as voting booths closed Sunday that the ruling coalition, headed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, had won enough seats to keep its majority.

They said that the opposition had lost many of its seats.

Half of the seats of parliament's less powerful upper house were up for grabs.

There was no possibility for a change of power because the ruling coalition controls the more powerful lower house of parliament.