Japan votes in election seen returning LDP to power

TOKYO  - Japanese voters streamed into polls across the country on Sunday in an election expected to return the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to power after a three-year hiatus, giving ex-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a chance to push his hawkish security agenda and radical economic recipe.

Polls opened at 7 a.m. (2200 GMT) and will close at 8 p.m. (1100 GMT), when major TV broadcasters will issue exit polls forecasting results.

An LDP win would usher in a government committed to a tough stance in a territorial row with China, a pro-nuclear energy policy despite last year's Fukushima disaster and a potentially risky prescription for hyper-easy monetary policy and big fiscal spending to beat deflation and tame a strong yen.

Media surveys have forecast the LDP will win a big majority in parliament's powerful 480-seat lower house, just three years after a devastating defeat that ended more than 50 years of almost non-stop rule by the business-friendly party.

Together with a small ally, Abe's LDP could even gain the two-thirds majority needed to break through a policy deadlock that has plagued successive governments for years.

Voters expressed disappointment with Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's Democratic Party of Japan(DPJ), which surged to power in 2009 promising to pay more heed to consumers than companies.

Many voters now feel the DPJ failed to meet its election pledges as it struggled to govern and cope with last year's huge earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster, and then pushed through an unpopular sales tax increase with LDP help.

"Nothing has changed for the better," said Masaki Kondo, a 29-year old worker at a securities firm, who voted DPJ three years ago but said he was switching his support to Abe's party

The DPJ has been hit by defections and is likely to win fewer than 100 seats, less than a third of its tally in 2009.

But some voters also doubted whether a return to LDP rule was a true antidote to the many challenges that face Japan from regional tensions to economic malaise.

"The Democrats are out because they have been unable to implement their policy manifesto and are divided internally. But that doesn't mean I support the LDP," said Yosuke Matsumoto, 33, who owns a marketing firm. "Nothing will change under them."

Voter distaste for both major parties has spawned a clutch of new parties including the right-leaning Japan Restoration Party founded by popular Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto.

Hashimoto's supporters in Osaka said the country needed strong leadership at a time when it sees its dominance in the region challenged by China and South Korea.

"What we need is a shake-up," said 77-year old Nobuo Sano.