Ex-Japan opposition chief says election tide turning

Japan's Democratic Party can win next month's election if more of the "floating voters" who shun party loyalty awake from Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's hypnotic spell, the Democrats' former leader said yesterday.

Support for the Democrats has been falling and that for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party rising since Koizumi called a general election for September 11 after rebels in his party helped to defeat bills to privatise the postal system, the core of his reform agenda.

An August 24-26 survey by the Yomiuri newspaper published yesterday, though, found that the Democrats were regaining lost ground among floating voters - many of them younger urbanites - who have traditionally leaned toward the opposition. The poll also showed a small rise overall in the percentage of voters planning to vote for the Democrats - although twice as many respondents still said they would opt for the LDP.

Koizumi's colourful battle with LDP rebels and his tactic of sending younger, often female candidates - dubbed "assassins" by media - to fight his old guard rivals has been drowning out the Democrats' message that other issues such as pension reform mattered more than privatising the postal system. "Koizumi is a master of hypnotism," Kan said. "If that hypnotic spell wears off, it will be clear Koizumi hasn't achieved reforms," he said, adding it was in the cities where the prime minister's tactics had had the most impact.