Japan's conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) won a landslide victory in today's election for parliament's lower house, TV exit polls showed, returning it to power after a three-year-hiatus with ex-prime minister Shinzo Abe at the helm.
An LDP win will usher in a government committed to a tough stance in a territorial row with China, a pro-nuclear power energy policy despite last year's Fukushima disaster, and a radical recipe of hyper-easy monetary policy and big fiscal spending to end persistant deflation and tame a strong yen.
The LDP was to win 296 seats in the 480-member lower house, while its ally, the New Komeito was to win 32 seats, TV Asahi's exit poll showed. That would give them the two-thirds majority needed to over-ride the upper house and break a policy deadlock that has plagued successive governments for half a decade.
The victory will give the 58-year-old Abe, who quit the top job in 2007 citing ill health after a troubled year in office, a second shot at running the world's third-biggest economy.
The ruling Democratic Party of Japan would get only 65 seats, the TV Asahi exit poll showed. The new right-leaning Japan Restoration Party would get 46 seats. Exit polls by other broadcasters were broadly in line those forecasts.