Japan's LDP ahead in polls

Japan's Liberation Democratic Party has taken a prevailing lead in the polls, according to numbers released on Monday, at a time that smaller, new parties have also gained momentum.

All of this comes just days after the Japanese parliament was dissolved on Nov 16.

Observers said the new right-wing parties, including Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's Japan Restoration Party, are likely to be reshuffled and merged. Their durability will be put to the test when they compete against older parties.

In most of the voting survey results released on Monday, the LDP took the top seats. The veteran party gained support from 22.9 percent of voters in a weekend survey conducted by Japan's Sankei Shimbun newspaper and Fuji News Network.

Yet the new JPR, which announced a merger with ex-Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara's party on Saturday, gained support from 22.4 percent of voters, only 0.5 percent fewer than the veteran conservative party.

Even though the ruling DPJ only garnered support from 14.8 percent of voters and was overtaken by the JPR, the Sankei Shimbun said the possibility remains that public opinion will undergo a large change.

In a poll conducted by Asahi News Network, the LDP took the lead by 23.2 percent, and the Japan Restoration Party only received 9.6 percent, a good showing when compared with the 11.8 percent garnered by the ruling DPJ.

Feng Wei, an expert on Japanese studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, said Japanese right-wing political upstarts, including Shintaro Ishihara, new leader of the Japan Restoration Party, are seeking to found "a third force" in Japanese politics, and Ishihara has various plans to contend with future competition.

"If the top seat in the LDP continues to remain unshakable, Ishihara's party will try to deter the LDP from gaining a majority in the House of Representatives, a move that may prompt the LDP to form an alliance with his party," Feng said.

The JRP, in a poll conducted by the Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun, obtained a 13 percent approval rating, putting it ahead of DPJ's 12 percent but behind the LDP's 17 percent.

Even if Ishihara's party fails to win seats in the new cabinet, it may replace the DPJ as the second-largest political power to shape the future of Japanese politics, Feng added.

According to a public opinion survey by Japan's Nippon Television, 50.6 percent of the Japanese public care most that proposed policies be "prosperity and employment policies".

And "pensions, medicare and nursery", the second hottest topics, also attracted 47.7 percent of public support.

Voters in the 300 constituencies will cast two ballots in next month's poll - one for a candidate to be their parliamentary representative and one for a party.

These party votes will be tallied in 11 regional blocs, and the seats in each will be awarded to each grouping according to the percentage of ballots it receives.

AFP contributed to this story.

zhangyunbi@chinadaily.com.cn