Exit polls suggest a major loss for the Liberal Democratic Party in parliamentary elections, but Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is vowing to stay on.

Japan’s ruling coalition looked set to lose its majority in the upper house, according to exit polls, an outcome that would further weaken embattled Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s leadership and potentially unsettle markets.

While Sunday's ballot does not directly determine whether Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s shaky minority government falls, it heaps pressure on the embattled leader of the key U.S. ally.