Voters in Japan are preparing to go to the polls in upper house elections that are likely to leave the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) without an outright majority in the chamber. The outcome of Sunday's vote could be a major setback to the prime minister, Naoto Kan, and his efforts to deal with Japan's massive public debt. Kan, a plain-spoken former finance minister, took over from Yukio Hatoyama in June and is the country's third prime minister in five years. His party, the DPJ, won a landslide victory in a general election last September promising to cut waste and focus spending on consumers. But it has failed to live up to many Japanese hopes for change and analysts have said a poor performance in Sunday's elections could push Kan from office. Kan has also seen his ratings slip in recent weeks after he floated plans to increase Japan's sales tax and failed to convince voters he had a clear plan for fixing the country's economic problems. While he has since backtracked on talk of tax rises, Sunday's vote has come to be seen as a referendum on his leadership.
