JAPAN: Japanese voters look to give the Liberal Democratic Party a second chance while also helping third parties increase their share

Record ID: 466791

  • Title: JAPAN: Japanese voters look to give the Liberal Democratic Party a second chance while also helping third parties increase their share
  • Date: 16th December 2012
  • Summary: CHILD HOLDING BALLOON READING: "DECEMBER 16"
  • Embargoed: 31st December 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVACF08YCU3D40R5JUS07WN9ZNMU
  • Story Text: Japanese voters cast ballots on Sunday (December 16) as they looked to give the once ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) another chance at power, but while also helping to increase the share that the myriad third parties have.
    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.
    Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's unpopular Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), hit by a stream of defections, is likely to win fewer than 100 seats, less than a third of its tally in 2009.
    However, some voters, such as 30-year-old Katsuhiro Hirano, said that with only three years given to the DPJ, he voted for them again as he wanted to give them more time before making a decision.

    "As there's things you still don't know about in three years, I feel like I want to give them a bit more time," Hirano said.
    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.

    "I hope that having small parties other than the LDP and the DPJ become more active will help create opinions that stir up debate and I think that'll help the overall discussion which I thought was good," said 37-year-old Takako Shimizu who voted for Your Party, a third party which already existed.
    The LDP, which promoted atomic energy during its decades-long reign, is expected to be friendly to nuclear utilities, although deep public safety concerns remain a barrier to business as usual for the industry and the Restoration party is also looking to slowly "Fade Out" nuclear power instead of immediate stop which other parties are calling for.

    "I've sort of seen in other parties that they haven't thought about what will happen if you suddenly stop nuclear power and what will happen to the economy after that. So (Restoration) used the words 'Fade Out' and I thought they were really thinking about that and so that was one of the deciding factors for me," said 29-year-old Shunsuke Koho.
    Polls opened at 0700 a.m. (2200 GMT) and will close at 8 p.m. (1100 GMT), when major TV broadcasters will issue exit polls forecasting results.
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