Hatoyama's DPJ wins two seats in Japan's upper house

TOKYO (AFP) - – Candidates from new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's party won two by-elections for Japan's upper house on Sunday, in the first test for the centre-left government, officials results showed.

Candidates for Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) faced those backed by the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in central Kanagawa and Shizuoka prefectures, with the official results confirmed late Sunday.

DPJ's Yoichi Kaneko won 1,010,175 votes in Kanagawa against his LDP rival's 792,634, while DPJ's Hirokazu Tsuchida beat his opponents in Shizuoka by getting 567,374 votes against LDP candidate's 404,763, official results showed.

"We received voters' backing for the cabinet's efforts to promote reforms," Hatoyama said in a statement.

The outcome provides an indication that the DPJ, which won a sweeping victory in the August lower house elections, may have a better chance to control the upper house after a nationwide poll for the chamber next summer.

With 123 seats in the 242-member upper chamber, the DPJ and its coalition partners -- the People's New Party and the Social Democratic Party -- already have a majority, but Hatoyama's party alone held only 112 seats before Sunday.

With two more seats to be added in the upper house, it will give momentum to Hatoyama, whose first parliamentary session starts Monday.

The by-elections were also a test for LDP's new leader, Sadakazu Tanigaki, who is seeking to rebuild a once-powerful political party that ruled Japan for more than half a century.

The LDP, led by former prime minister Taro Aso, suffered a historic blow at the hands of Hatoyama's DPJ in the August elections.