Japanese voters longing for change look likely to hand the opposition Democratic Party a historic victory in an election one week away, trouncing the conservative party that has ruled for most of the past half-century.

That would be a stunning reversal of fortunes for the Liberal Democratic Party from four years ago, when charismatic leader Junichiro Koizumi led the way to a huge win with pledges of bold reforms. What's altered, analysts say, isn't voters' desire for change, but their perception of who can achieve it.

"In 2005, it looked like Mr Koizumi would deliver change," said Chuo University professor Steven Reed. "Now voters are going to try for change again - but this time, with different people."

Newspaper surveys are predicting Yukio Hatoyama's decade-old Democratic Party could win by a landslide, taking some 300 seats in Parliament's 480-member lower house and ousting the LDP for only the second time since its 1955 founding. Analysts caution that the Democrats' victory may be less overwhelming, but many do expect them to win a majority.

Mr Koizumi energised the electorate with a pledge to privatise the giant postal system as a symbol of bold, market-friendly reforms and by kicking out party rebels who opposed the plan.

Four years, one global financial crisis and a recession later, the Democrats are promising to refocus spending on consumers not companies to boost growth, reduce bureaucrats' clout over policies and cut waste, and rein in what they see as the excesses of US-style, bare-knuckles capitalism.