Low Turnout Predicted In Japan

Under clear skies in brisk fall weather, people lined up to vote Sunday in a parliamentary election dominated by politicians’ calls to take power away from bureaucrats - and by voters’ skepticism that any of them will be able to pull it off.

Polls predicted the parliamentary election would produce Japan’s lowest turnout ever in a national ballot.

The Liberal Democratic Party of Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto was favored. The prime minister tried to portray his party as a force for change, promising to reform a government structure that has long given bureaucrats more power than elected officials.