Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party concedes election defeat

Japan's ruling party conceded a crushing defeat today as voters looked to have handed the main opposition party a historic general election victory.

Television exit polls suggested the left-of-centre Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) would win 300 or more of the 480 seats in the lower house, a huge improvement on its current 115 seats.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party was forecast to win only about 100 seats, a devastating blow to the party that has ruled Japan for all but 11 months since 1955.

"These results are very severe," the prime minister, Taro Aso, told a news conference at party headquarters. "There has been a deep dissatisfaction with our party."

Aso said he would have to accept responsibility for the results, suggesting that he would resign as party president. Other LDP leaders also said they would step down, though official results were not to be released until early tomorrow morning.

Victory for the DPJ will see its president, Yukio Hatoyama, installed as leader of the first government not led by the Liberal Democratic party (LDP) for 15 years and only the second for more than half a century.

Early estimates showed turnout was high, but hopes that it could exceed 70% may have been dashed by strong winds and heavy rain brought by an approaching typhoon.

The exit polls are in line with recent opinion polls showing the LDP's strength in the lower house slashed from 300 seats to as few as 100.

The Democratic Party needs only to win a simple majority of 241 seats in the lower house to ensure that it can name the next prime minister. The 300-plus level would allow it and its two smaller allies the two-thirds majority they need in the lower house to pass bills.

The election has proved disastrous for Aso, whose year in office has been bedevilled by gaffes and sleaze, as well as coinciding with Japan's deepest recession since the second world war.

While Hatoyama represents a shot in the dark, he has captured the public imagination with promises of higher welfare spending, the introduction of a minimum wage and child allowance, and a more equal relationship with Japan's main ally, the US.

"The ruling party has betrayed the people over the past four years, driving the economy to the edge of a cliff, building up more than 6 trillion yen (£39.4bn) in public debt, wasting money, ruining our social security net and widening the gap between the rich and poor," the DPJ said in a statement today. "We will change Japan. We will not be arrogant and we will listen to the people."

Even voters who remain wary of the DPJ's spending promises said they were prepared to vote for the party.

"We don't know if the Democrats can really make a difference, but we want to give them a chance," Junko Shinoda, a civil servant, told the Associated Press after casting her vote in Tokyo.

Newspaper editorials agreed that Hatoyama's first task must be to steer Japan towards sustained economic recovery.

"Whoever wins the election on Sunday, we want to ask the next administration to swiftly deal with concerns about unemployment, uncertainty and deflation, which are deepening simultaneously," the Nikkei business paper said.