Japan’s ruling party suffered a devastating defeat in parliamentary elections today, early exit polls suggested, as voters angry at a spate of recent government scandals used the ballot box to express their dissatisfaction.

Today’s upper house elections was the biggest test yet for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who took office less than a year ago as Japan's youngest prime minister amid soaring support ratings. His popularity has plunged amid public outrage over millions of lost pension records and scandals that spurred two ministers to resign and another to kill himself.

Mr Abe accepted responsibility for the crushing defeat, but indicated he would not step down as Prime Minister. "We tried our best and felt we made some progress, so the results are extremely disappointing," he said after the polls closed. "I must push ahead with reforms and continue to fulfill my responsibilities as prime minister."

Hidenao Nakagawa, secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party is poised to resign to take responsibility for the loss, the Kyodo News agency reported.

The defeat will not directly threaten the political grip of the Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled Japan in an almost unbroken succession of administrations since it was formed in 1955. The upper house is largely ceremonial, and the LDP keeps control over the lower house, which chooses the prime minister and can override most votes in the upper house.

While last-minute surveys indicated Mr Abe’s LDP and its coalition partner the New Komei Party had been regaining ground, exit polls showed the coalition far behind the 64 seats needed to keep its majority in the upper house.

Mr Abe won points after taking office for mending strained diplomatic ties with South Korea and China. But the Prime Minister has recently been blamed for mishandling nearly every scandal that has crossed his desk, triggering a stunning reversal of fortune for a ruling party that his predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, led to a landslide in the last elections in 2005.

Things soured in December, when Administrative Reform Minister Genichiro Sata stepped down over alleged misuse of political funds. Mr Abe’s fortunes really began to unravel in May, when his agriculture minister killed himself amid allegations he misused public funds. Mr Abe’s government came under fire again last month, when Defence Minister Fumio Kyuma suggested the 1945 American nuclear bombings of Japan were justified. Public outcry led to his speedy departure.

Topping it all, Mr Abe brushed off warnings by the opposition late last year that pension records had been lost, inaction that came back to haunt him in the spring, when the full scope of the records losses showed that some 50 million claims had been wiped out.

The ruling party has repeatedly stressed that the Democrats are largely untested in power, while a vote for LDP candidates is a vote for continuity. The LDP is also staking claim to engineering Japan’s comeback from more than a decade of economic doldrums.

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