Japan votes as ruling party seeks fresh start

Polls opened in Japan's general election on Sunday with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida hoping to win over a pandemic-fatigued public with spending promises as his long-ruling conservatives seek a fresh start.

Kishida became leader of the Liberal Democratic Party a month ago after Yoshihide Suga resigned just a year into the job, partly due to public discontent over his response to the Covid-19 crisis.

Following a record wave of infections that pushed the Tokyo Olympics behind closed doors, cases have now plummeted and most restrictions have been lifted.

While this may ease some voters' frustrations, the LDP -- which has held power almost continuously since the 1950s -- is likely to lose seats and may have trouble retaining its commanding majority, analysts say.

Kishida, 64, has pledged to issue a fresh stimulus package worth tens of trillions of yen to counter the impact of the pandemic on the world's third-largest economy.

He has also outlined plans to distribute wealth more fairly under a so-called "new capitalism", although details so far remain vague.

But Japan's 106 million voters have "struggled to get excited about the new prime minister", said Stefan Angrick, a senior economist at Moody's Analytics.

"Kishida faces headwinds from weak ratings and a more coordinated opposition, but an improving Covid-19 situation and economic outlook are factors in his favour."

Across Japan, 1,051 candidates are standing for election to parliament's lower house.

In recent decades, votes against the LDP have been split between multiple major opposition parties, but this time five rival parties have boosted cooperation in a bid to dent its stranglehold.