Japan to vote

Prime Minister Taro Aso's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has ruled Japan almost uninterrupted for over fifty years, but now its leader has a public approval rating of under 20 percent, and the LDP looks set for a historic defeat.

After the Cabinet voted to dissolve the lower house of parliament on Tuesday, Japan will now vote in a national election on August 30. Prime Minister Taro Aso has vowed to restore voters' faith in his fractious ruling party ready for the polls, admitting that his leadership has cost the LDP dearly.

"My statements and what has been characterized as my changing policy positions have led the Japanese people to worry about and grow distrustful of politics," Aso said.

"As a result, the approval rating for the Liberal Democratic Party has fallen. I am deeply sorry."

Changing of the guard?

Most pundits expect the opposition, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), to defeat the 68 year-old Aso and his LDP in August's elections. A succession of failures in local elections, most recently in Tokyo, has prompted some LDP members to call for Aso to step down and allow a new leader to take the party into the elections.

The opposition DPJ is led by US-trained engineer Yukio Hatoyama, who advocates strengthening social welfare and reducing the influence of the powerful state bureaucracy.

"This general election is not only about ending the LDP's rule," Hatoyama told a news conference. "This is an important, revolutionary vote to create a new Japan with politician-led politics. We need to tackle the election with the sense of a historic mission."

However, some analysts fear that an opposition DPJ victory would lead to increased public spending, extending an already runaway public debt in the world's second largest economy.

msh/AFP/Reuters

Editor: Neil King