Japan Elections Could Test U.S. Relations Party Favored to Win Has Pushed for Stronger Ties to Asian Neighbors By MARGARET CONLEY TOKYO, Aug. 30, 200

Around 50,000 polling stations opened across Japan today for what is expected to be an historic election.

A man picks a candidate before casting his vote for parliament's lower house election at a polling...

A man picks a candidate before casting his vote for parliament's lower house election at a polling station in Tokyo, Japan, Sunday, Aug. 30, 2009. Japanese cast ballots Sunday in hotly contested parliamentary elections in which the ruling conservative party, battered by a laggard economy and voter desire for change after more than half a century of virtual one-party rule, was expected to suffer an overwhelming defeat.

(Junji Kurokawa/AP Photo)

"This election that's happening on Sunday in Japan is without exaggeration, the most important election in half a century," says Columbia University professor Gerald Curtis, "For half a century, there's basically been only one party in power -- and they are going to lose. They are going to lose very big."

Since post World War II, with only a brief break in power, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has ruled since the party was formed -- since Dwight D. Eisenhower was president of the United States.

Early polls consistently show the opposition party will win the majority of the 480 seats in the House of Representatives, which will then select the prime minister.

Source