Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso conceded defeat in Sunday's election after media exit polls predicted a landslide victory for the opposition Democratic Party after nearly 54 consecutive years of conservative rule.
"These results are very severe," Aso said in a news conference at Liberal Democrat headquarters. "There has been a deep dissatisfaction with our party."
Aso accepted responsibility for the election results and hinted that he would resign as president of the Liberal Democrats, who have governed since 1955, with the exception of one 11-month stretch.
Japanese television network NHK predicted Sunday that the Democratic Party will win 300 of 480 seats in parliament's lower house.
The network based its projections, which gave the Liberal Democrats about 100 seats, on exit polls of about 400,000 voters.
An exit poll by TV Asahi predicted the Democratic Party would win 315 seats.
Official results are expected early Monday.
"We've worked so hard to achieve a leadership change and that has now become almost certain thanks to the support of many voters," said Yoshihiko Noda, a senior member of the Democratic Party. "We feel a strong sense of responsibility to achieve each of our campaign promises."
In it the wake of the exit poll results, Hiroyuki Hosoda, secretary-general of the Liberal Democrats, and two other top party officials said they will resign from their posts.
If the results hold, Yukio Hatoyama, leader of the Democratic Party, could push Aso out of office and establish a new cabinet within the next few weeks.
Regime change will also jump-start policy debates in parliament, which has been deadlocked since the Democratic Party took control in the upper house in 2007.
Voters appeared wooed by promises from the left-of-centre opposition to rebuild a stagnant economy that is hampered by a growing national debt and aging population.
"The ruling party has betrayed the people over the past four years, driving the economy to the edge of a cliff, building up more than 6 trillion yen (US$64.1 billion) in public debt, wasting money, ruining our social security net and widening the gap between the rich and poor," the Democratic Party said Sunday in a statement before voting began.
"We will change Japan," it said.
Japanese citizens appeared eager to put an end to the conservatives' rule, as voter turnout was high despite the threat of a typhoon.
Aso's support has plummeted to 20 per cent despite his assertions that his party built Japan into a post-World War II economic power and would lead the nation out of its current financial crisis.
Voters are likely frustrated with an unemployment rate of 5.7 per cent, the highest in Japan since World War II.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party, which held only 112 seats when parliament was dissolved in July, promised a stimulus bill that includes toll-free highways, free high schools, income support for farmers, monthly stipends for unemployed workers undergoing job training, a boost in the minimum wage and tax cuts.
The bill's costs total 16.8 trillion yen, or US$179 billion.
"We don't know if the Democrats can really make a difference, but we want to give them a chance," government employee Junko Shinoda, 59, told The Associated Press after voting in downtown Tokyo.
While the Democrats promise economic stimulus, they also appear ready to loosen close ties forged with the United States in the post-war era.
The party has expressed concerns about the reorganization of U.S. troops stationed in Japan and a refuelling mission in the Indian Ocean that supports American soldiers in Afghanistan.
"As a result of the failure of the Iraq war and the financial crisis, the era of U.S.-led globalism is coming to an end," Hatoyama, who holds a doctorate in engineering from Stanford University, wrote this week in The New York Times. But he also predicted that the United States "will remain the world's leading military and economic power for the next two to three decades."
With files from The Associated Press
