Troubled economy takes main stage in Japan's elections

TOKYO - The message from voters leading up to Japan's parliamentary elections this weekend is clear: Get the shaky economy back on track.

How to accomplish that is more complex, sparking a sharp debate between the Japanese ruling party and its political opposition - and testing the nation's tolerance for change.

The Japanese are weary of a long decade of economic weakness. Unemployment is at a near-record high of 4.8 percent, the national debt has ballooned and heightened anxiety is lifting crime and suicide rates.

''Economic recovery is the biggest overall issue in this election,'' said Yoshiomi Takano, a 26-year-old bank employee in Tokyo.

The ruling coalition - led by Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's Liberal Democratic Party - and its opposition offer sharply different solutions.

The LDP wants to continue doling out public spending, while the opposition wants to rein in the national debt.

The scenario that gets chosen in the vote on Sunday is critical to Japan's economic future. More than 1,400 candidates are vying for 480 seats in Parliament's lower house, the more powerful of two chambers.

The opposition isn't expected to topple the ruling coalition but could give it a good scare, partly because of widespread disenchantment over the economy.

The Japan Democratic Party, the largest opposition group, tells voters they must face up to the pain of ballooning national debt, and pay higher taxes. It cautions against getting lured by promises of more pork-barrel projects from the ruling coalition led by Mori, who replaced Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi after Obuchi suffered a stroke in April. Obuchi died in May.

Japan is among the world's most indebted industrialized nations. Its public debt exceeds $5.9 trillion, or nearly 130 percent of its gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services it produces. The U.S. national debt is roughly about half its GDP.

Like smaller opposition parties, the Japan Democrats advocate less government. Where they differ is pushing for the tax increase, which would eliminate exemptions for nonworking spouses and elderly dependents.

Mori and his coalition partners argue against chasing ''two rabbits'' at once - spurring economic recovery while trimming the national debt. They say the government can't risk choking off a recovery with a tax increase.

''Our most important task is to achieve economic recovery,'' Mori said recently. ''Signs of brighter times are beginning to emerge.''

The economy grew a bare 0.5 percent last year but Mori is touting that as a victory, coming after two years of contractions.

The ruling coalition says stability is key to that recovery, and some economists agree.

The best scenario is for the ruling coalition to stay in power, said Yukari Sato, an economist with Nikko Salomon Smith Barney in Tokyo, warning that debt reduction should wait a couple of years until the economy is stronger.

''To have a vacuum in leadership is risky,'' she said.

The other side of the economic debate is structural reform.

Change has come slowly to Japan, which is dominated by a myriad of rigid rules left from a period following World War II when bureaucrats helped orchestrate Japan's dramatic economic growth.

The ruling party is supporting such changes as looser regulations, helping the technology industry through subsidies and encouraging start-ups to create jobs.

But the opposition says the LDP is too entrenched to enact real reform.

''The Liberal Democrats are too entangled in old-style politics to bring change,'' said Noboru Usami, a Japan Democratic candidate.

While the economy is the top issue in many voters' minds, a lot of Japanese lack faith in the solutions offered by either side in the election. A survey published Wednesday by the Asahi newspaper showed 52 percent of voters did not support any party.