komeito. the party for future generations. japanese communist party. people's life party. social democratic party. smaller groups. independents. some of those candidates will be running for proportional representation seats, too. in all, 11 political parties and groups are vying for those seats. liberal democratic party. democratic party. japan innovation party. komeito. the party for future generations. japanese communist party. people's life party. social democratic party. new renaissance party. the ppiness realization party. shijiseitounashi. all together, 1,191 candidates are running in this election. that's 313 fewer than the last election two years ago. the official campaign runs for 12 days. prime minister abe says he wants voters to weigh in on his abenomics plan. he argues it's helping to end years of deflation and stimulate growth. but some members of the opposition maintain the benefits have not reached all corners of the country. >> about 100 million japanese are eligible to vote on sunday, december 14th. we'll have extensive coverage leading up to election day

his liberal democratic party and its partner komeito have secured a two thirds majority in the lower house. the parties won 326 of the 475 seats in the chamber. that's well above the 317 needed to secure a two-thirds majority, and it means the ruling parties will be able to set their agenda for the diet, and see it through. abe says he wants to push forward with his policies. they include his economic plan known as abenomics. he spoke to media on monday, one day after the election win. >> translator: yesterday, we got voter support for abenomics. so i want to advance the policy in three areas. we will take action immediately with economic stimulus measures by the end of this year. we will compile a budget for the next fiscal year. the diet will be convened at the start of next year. we want to carry out drastic deregulation in areas such as agriculture, health care, and energy. and we'll strongly promote our growth strategy. we will not change our policy of reducing dependency on nuclear power or through energy savings, and introducing renewable resources. but as for nuclear plants,