Voters in Japan have been going to the polls in a snap general election, giving their verdict on Shinzo Abe’s government after almost five years in power.
Forecasts suggest the prime minister’s gamble is likely to pay off, even though many Japanese people didn’t want this election now.
Japanese stocks hit their highest level since 1996 on Monday after exit polls indicated Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had won a clear election victory.
His conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)-led coalition is tipped to be close to obtaining the two-thirds “super majority” it had in parliament’s lower house before it was dissolved.