Final campaign push a day before Japanese vote

TOKYO (AP) — Candidates are making final impassioned appeals to voters before parliamentary elections Sunday that are likely to hand power back to a conservative party that ruled Japan for most of the post-war era.

Polls suggest that voters will dump the ruling Democratic Party of Japan three years after it swept to power and give the most seats in the 480-member lower chamber to the opposition Liberal Democratic Party, which ruled Japan for decades.

That would give the hawkish Shinzo Abe, who was prime minister from 2006-2007, the top job again — raising concerns about ties with rival China amid a territorial dispute.

But the emergence of several new parties has confused some voters, and polls show that about 40 percent of people are yet undecided.