The opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), led by Yukio Hatoyama, stormed home with more than 300 seats in the 480-seat lower house of parliament.

Voters frustrated with the government's handling of Japan's worst post-war recession punished Prime Minister Taro Aso and forced the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from office for only the second time since 1955.

The soft-spoken Hatoyama, 62, will take over as prime minister at a time when the world's number two economy is just emerging from recession and still struggling with record unemployment.

Hatoyama, a US-trained engineering scholar and scion of an old political dynasty, campaigned on a promise of change and people-centred politics against the business-friendly LDP, headed by fellow political blueblood Aso.

"Today the people of Japan have taken courage to choose a change in the rule of government, and for that I am thankful," said Hatoyama, who is expected to be formally elected premier in a Diet session the week of September 14.

He vowed "a shift from old politics to new politics -- that is, a new government that centres on the people".

And he reiterated calls for a gentler form of capitalism, saying: "We should not treat market fundamentalism as the answer to everything."

In Washington, the White House said it expected a "strong alliance" with the incoming government and hoped to hold early consultations with Tokyo, including on the stand-off with nuclear-armed North Korea.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs described the vote as a "historic election in one of the world's leading democracies.

"We are confident that the strong US-Japan alliance and the close partnership between our two countries will continue to flourish," he said.

Aso, the outgoing premier, said he was resigning as head of the LDP to "take the responsibility" for his party's crushing defeat. "We have to make a fresh start swiftly by holding a (party) presidential election," he added.

The DPJ already controlled the upper house with the support of smaller parties. Now, it looks set to take the lower house too with the numbers to push through legislation, ending the deadlock in the previous Diet.

The DPJ has promised better social welfare, which it says would help recession-hit families, boost domestic demand and raise the birth rate to reverse a projected decline of Japan's fast-greying population.

In foreign policy, it has signalled a solid but less subservient partnership with traditional ally Washington and a desire to boost its regional ties, promoting a European Union-style Asian community and common currency.

Referring to US ties, Hatoyama said that "President Obama has steered the country greatly toward dialogue and harmonisation" in world affairs.

Hatoyama also said he would seek to resolve a decades-old territorial dispute over an island chain with Russia, a row which has prevented the two countries from signing a post-World War II peace treaty.

As premier, Hatoyama would be expected to attend next month's UN general assembly in New York and a G20 summit in Pittsburgh, and quickly seek talks with Obama, Chinese President Hu Jintao and other world leaders.

The LDP is credited with guiding Japan through its "economic miracle" but is also blamed for the malaise that set in during the 1990s and for free-market policies seen by many to have widened social inequality.

Aso had portrayed the LDP as the safe choice to guard Japan's security and prosperity, and pointed to the recent end of the country's recession.

But in the end his party was swamped by changing political tides. The prime minister, 68, had dismayed voters with a series of gaffes and policy turnarounds as divisions widened within his party.

Updated media projections confirmed a strong victory for the DPJ.

TV Asahi said the DPJ would take 308 seats in the 480-seat lower house against 119 seats for the LDP, while public broadcaster NHK predicted the DPJ would take 306 seats, against 119 for the LDP.

The LDP -- which since 1955 had been out of power for only 10 months, in the early 1990s -- had 303 seats in the outgoing parliament to the DPJ's 112.

Total voter turnout was just over 69 percent, higher than in polls four years ago, the Jiji Press news agency reported.

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