Japan's swinging voters more inclined for opposition: poll

TOKYO (AFP) - The latest survey showed Saturday Japan's largest opposition enjoyed a wider lead over the ruling party among swinging voters, ahead of upcoming upper house elections.

The poll by Jiji Press news agency showed 15.3 percent of swing voters would likely vote for the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in the poll, up 4.3 percentage points from a month before.

Support for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was flat at 9.8 percent, the poll said.

In the elections to the House of Councilors of parliament, scheduled on July 29, a total of 121 seats -- exactly half of the upper house -- is up for grabs, of which 48 seats will be alloted to candidates of proportional representation.

The survey, conducted for four days through Monday, covered 2,000 adults nationwide, of which 66.7 percent responded effectively, Jiji said.

When all voters surveyed were counted, support for the DPJ rose 3.8 points to 21.2 percent, narrowing the gap with the LDP to 4.2 points from 6.5 points a month before.

Among voters in metropolitan areas, the DPJ topped the LDP 22.1 percent to 18.1 percent, the survey showed.

Abe, the nation's first premier born after World War II, took office with a mission to erase legacies of defeat including rewriting the US-imposed pacifist constitution.