In Sunday's Japanese parliamentary elections, exit polls are suggesting that the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) is headed for an overwhelming victory. Under the leadership of Yukio Hatoyama, the party is expected to win 300 of the 480 seats available. Mr Hatoyama is almost certain to become the new prime minister.

The elections have been a crushing defeat for Prime Minister Taro Aso and his conservative Liberal Democratic Party, which has held power in Japan for an almost unbroken fifty years. It has lost approximately 200 of its 300 seats. Mr Aso has now announced his resignation as party leader.

The LDP has been hit hard by a recent series of political scandals and by criticism that it has failed to tackle the global economic crisis effectively. Unemployment in the country is currently at record levels and has never been so high since the end of the Second World War.

Mr Hatoyama has promised voters that he intends to make Japan less dependent on the United States. He wants to direct more attention to a country such as China, which is now of much greater importance for Japanese exports than the US.

Observers expect that a new economic policy will attract more foreign capital into the country. However, some people fear that with such a large majority, the DPJ will have a virtually unopposed say in how that policy is carried out.

Photos by ANP/EPA