Japanese voters set to restore LDP to power

It appears a foregone conclusion that the Liberal Democratic Party will sweep back into power with ease in today's general election.

The new government's biggest foreign policy test will be how to respond to a confident and increasingly assertive China, Japan's adversary in the escalating dispute over sovereignty of the Diaoyu Islands, known as the Senkakus in Japan.

On the domestic front, whether the lessons the party has learned during its three years in opposition are sufficient to keep the electorate happy after the inevitable honeymoon period has elapsed remains to be seen.

Public opinion polls indicate that the LDP, headed by former prime minister Shinzo Abe, will win more than 300 of the 480 seats up for grabs in the more powerful lower house of the Diet.

If the predictions are correct, and multiple polls by different media are all telling precisely the same story, then the current prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, will suffer a major drubbing that could further split his already divided Democratic Party of Japan DPJ).

Noda, who many agree has not done too much wrong in his 15 months in office but is carrying the can for the failures of his predecessors, is expected to announce his resignation as party leader once the results are in.