Government under pressure as Japan votes

Japan’s voters today went to the polls in hotly contested parliamentary elections in which the ruling conservative party, battered by a struggling economy and voter desire for change after more than half a century of virtual one-party rule, was expected to suffer an overwhelming defeat.

The Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed Japan for all but 11 months since 1955, went into the elections with all major polls projecting it would lose control of the lower house of parliament.