Centre-left set for historic win in Japanese vote

Japan voted on Sunday in a historic election expected to end more than half a century of almost unbroken conservative rule and sweep an untested centre-left party to power in a landslide.

The opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), led by Yukio Hatoyama, is set to storm home with more than 300 seats in the 480-seat lower house of parliament, according to opinion polls ahead of the election.

Voters frustrated with the government's handling of Japan's worst post-war recession were set to punish embattled Prime Minister Taro Aso and force the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from office.

An opposition win would see the soft-spoken Hatoyama, 62, take over as prime minister, charged with steering the world's number two economy through the global downturn as it struggles with record unemployment.

Hatoyama, a US-trained engineering scholar and scion of an old political dynasty, campaigned on a promise of change and people-centred politics against the business-friendly LDP, headed by fellow political blueblood Aso.

Recalling US President Barack Obama's election victory last year, Hatoyama asked voters in a final campaign speech on Saturday at a Tokyo railway station: "Why can't we do what the United States could do?"

"I think we need a change now," agreed one voter, pensioner Toshihiro Nakamura, 68, after casting his ballot Sunday at a Tokyo elementary school.

"It's too long for a single party to dominate national politics," said Nakamura, echoing what polls have suggested is a widespread view among Japan's electorate of more than 103 million.

The DPJ already controls the upper house with the support of smaller parties, including the Social Democrats. A two-thirds majority in the lower house would give the party the numbers to push through legislation.

Polling stations were to close at 8:00 pm (1100 GMT), with media exit polls expected shortly afterwards.

In full-page DPJ advertisements published in major dailies on Sunday, the party confidently predicted: "Today, a government change."

"A courageous decision by the people will open the door for a historic and major event," it said in another statement.

The DPJ has promised better social welfare, which it says would help recession-hit families, boost domestic demand and raise the birth rate to reverse a projected decline of Japan's fast-greying population.

In foreign policy, it has signalled a solid but less subservient partnership with traditional ally the United States and a desire to boost its regional ties and promote a European Union-style Asian community and common currency.

As premier, Hatoyama would be expected to attend a UN assembly in New York and a G20 summit in Pittsburgh in September and quickly seek talks with US President Barack Obama, Chinese President Hu Jintao and other world leaders.

The ruling LDP is credited with guiding Japan through its post-war "economic miracle" but is also blamed for the economic malaise that set in during the 1990s and for free-market policies seen by many to have widened social inequality.

Aso has portrayed the LDP as the safe choice in guarding Japan's security and prosperity and points to stimulus measures that helped end the recession.

In its own full-page advertisements, the LDP warned voters: "Don't destroy Japan... Hope tomorrow can only come from stability today."

But for months, polls have indicated the political tide has turned against Aso's party. The prime minister, 68, has dismayed voters with a series of gaffes and policy turnarounds as divisions have widened within his party.

"I expect the LDP's long-term rule in this country will end and a new politics will reflect people's voices," said one Tokyo voter, Shuichi Tanaka, 45. "What's important in this change is that the fresh faces will not limit themselves to existing ideas but can come up with new ideas."

While polls predict a DPJ victory, experts caution that up to a third of voters were undecided in recent surveys and that the electorate, long averse to change, still harbours doubts about the DPJ, which has never held government.