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Taken from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp...1001716/1/.html Posted: 30 August 2009 1934 hrs TOKYO: Japan's opposition Democratic Party won general elections on Sunday in a landslide, ousting the long-ruling conservative party, according to media exit polls just after voting ended. An exit poll by TV Asahi predicted the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) would take 315 seats in the 480-seat lower house, while Tokyo Broadcasting System forecast the centre-left opposition party would win 321 seats. Public broadcaster NHK predicted the DPJ would win between 298 and 329 seats, against a range of just 84 to 131 seats for the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Prime Minister Taro Aso. Nippon Television predicted a DPJ total of 324 seats against the LDP's 96. "It's a landslide win. It's a dramatic election," Hiroshi Hoshi, a veteran journalist with the Asahi Shimbun daily, told TV Asahi. The LDP – which has ruled Japan with only one 10-month break since 1955 – had 303 seats in the outgoing parliament to the DPJ's 112. Loud whoops of joy rang through a venue in Tokyo's Roppongi entertainment district where the DPJ was celebrating. "We have worked desperately to take the government reins and finally received the support of the majority of the people to make it certain now," senior DPJ official Yoshihiko Noda told NHK television. The results suggest the soft-spoken Hatoyama, 62, is on course to take over as prime minister at a time when the world's number two economy is just emerging from recession, but still struggling 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 on Sunday at a Tokyo elementary school. "It's too long for a single party to dominate national politics." The DPJ already controlled the upper house with the support of smaller parties, including the Social Democrats, frustrating the LDP's agenda in the lower house and leading often to legislative deadlock. Now, the DPJ looks set to take the lower house as well with the numbers to push through legislation. In full-page 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, promoting 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 Obama, Chinese President Hu Jintao and other world leaders. The LDP is credited with guiding Japan through its "economic miracle", but is also blamed for the malaise that set in during the 1990s and for free-market policies seen by many to have widened social inequality. Aso had portrayed the LDP as the safe choice in guarding Japan's security and prosperity, and pointed to stimulus measures that helped to end the recession. But in the end, the changing political tide swamped Aso's party. The prime minister, 68, had dismayed voters with a series of gaffes and policy turnarounds as divisions widened within his party. - AFP/so