Japan's August 30 elections for the House of Representatives could be a watershed for the world's second-largest economy if the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) succeeds in breaking the half-century hold of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on Japan's politics.

Japan's export-driven economy is slowly recovering from the worst recession the island nation has suffered since World War II. However, reform deadlock, a crumbling social system, a greying society and a political system geared toward patronage and pork have highlighted the LDP's inability to enact the changes necessary to keep Japan on a path toward growth.

In past polls, voters have turned out in ever lower numbers, frustrated with the inability to effect change at the polling stations, but if the DJP can take over the reins of power this time around, the question remained whether it would actually have the strength to rule over Japan's mighty LDP-dominated bureaucracy.

What is more, would the party - a significant number of whose members are disaffected former LDP power brokers - be able to carry its reform agenda over into government?

The election to select the more powerful lower house of Japan's two-chamber Diet pits unpopular Prime Minister Taro Aso, an experienced survivor of LDP internal power struggles, against Yukio Hatoyama. Hatoyama took over in May at the helm of the DJP, which already controls the upper House of Councillors, after a party financing scandal that nearly scuttled its prospects for winning.

Hatoyama still has to prove that he can step out of the shadow of former DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa, a man who is probably his party's biggest asset and, at the same time, its greatest liability.

Is the LDP headed for a bruising defeat or can the party persuade voters that it deserves one more chance to get Japan's economy back on track?

The dpa International Service in English is offering a package that looks at the two main contending parties and their leaders, the state of Japan after almost 50 years of nearly uninterrupted LDP rule and the challenges awaiting the DPJ should the party triumph on August 30. (dpa)