governor quickly it's it's not a threat to the l.d.p. or a prime minister. liberal democratic party where the political threat comes from and i think it's going to come from the liberal that the constitutional democratic party of japan rather run by its leader it down on he's a principled leader he is stressing. in forcing and abiding by the constitution and turning law to the constitution i think this is a real attraction for japanese people the challenge for him is to create a realistic security policy that can fit alongside that principle constitutional. principle constitutionalism that he says thousand and this is a real struggle the only the l.d.p. really has a practical and a track record of strong security that can help japan deal with some of its regional security issues such as north korea but also in the mid to long term china hardest to can deal with a strong and economically vibrant china ok when it comes to being economic when it comes to being vibrant i mean mr rbs nomics it's a given here he hasn't turned the economy around but he's certainly

has he done enough to challenge the majority of the l.d.p.?well, the latest pole suggests they are slipping in popularity. she came on as a real beacon of hope and change, right? there's been some disappointment within the ranks as well as she has not named a prime minister candidate within the party. and she is not necessarily tanding as the candidate -- reporter: she hasn't named who. >> we had an interview yesterday. she repeatedly say she will not be standing. many people are asking me why isn't she doing this? if she's going to be the harbinger of change? well, it's unlikely that they will win the election, of course. what they could do is chip away at the 2/3 majority of the l.d.p. and the partner has. they control about 68 seats. so the hope is there's a lonner term play for the party of hope that they can start chipping away. there are differences between the l.d.p. and the party of hope. they differ on how to raise money whether it's a consumption tax that the l.d.p. launched in 2019. they still have another year and a half or so to r

but this former member of the l.d.p. is not running as a candidate sarah clarke is in tokyo sarah went to the polls close. we have listened to hours until the polls close at eight pm local time and as you mentioned the typhoon has played havoc across the country with regards to the voter turnout in the south and the southwest we've had a lot of flooding and evacuations are on some of the islands are some of the communities have been unable to vote simply because the ferries haven't been able to deliver the ballot boxes for those people to go to those polling booths so the last count we had looking at the numbers of turnouts were about twenty two percent other was early this afternoon we're still waiting on the next round of numbers that's on top of the fifteen percent who had voted before today's election so we're looking at under fifty percent by mid afternoon a couple of hours ago some may consider that disappointing i should state that voting is not compulsory in japan therefore and last election i believe about fifty

but this former member of the l.d.p. is not running as a candidate so clark is in tokyo this r.v. is expected to win big serious of what policies do we think of convince the voters to stay with him. certainly the polls are indicating it will be a big winner a robust victory for. a and as you mentioned three hundred to four hundred sixty five seats if that's the case it would be ten more than he held before the election now people clearly a listening to his case that there should be voting for a strong experienced government at a time of international and domestic uncertainty in this argument of course was based on the escalating tensions with north korea is taking credit for keeping north korea and this deepening regional crisis and clearly this is paid off for him he's also pushed the success of his. reforms are big companies have benefited from some of his reform agenda but there's still criticism from the smaller and medium sized companies who are yet to rate the financial rewards from this economic change here's what some voters had to say at the polling both earlier about the

but a former member of l.d.p. isn't running as a candidate well let's go to sarah clarke who's in tokyo for us sara just give us an indication of what's been happening. well as you mentioned the polls are indicating that they will return with i robust victory the polls have suggested as you mentioned three hundred of the four hundred sixty five seats will go to the ruling liberal democratic party and that would be a greater majority or treaters majority but a greater majority than what he had before he called this snap election you also mentioned that there were two parties of political parties that have launched in recent weeks that an issue some thought would pose a challenge to our base majority but one was the party of hope many thought that would be the biggest opposition to our by but polls have suggested that any popularity has faded over recent weeks simply because the tokyo governor popular governor who led that party she wasn't running and also what was on offer was not too much of a differentiation of w

but it's an idea that's gaining popular support to use a missile threats from north korea his ruling l.d.p. party approved changes at its congress this year allowing leaders up to three consecutive three year terms from the previous two consecutive three year term limit let's go live to tokyo now to syria sarah clarke is there so sarah exit polls predicted that they would win resoundingly with a supermajority has he done enough to get that. you're right the exit polls which have just been released in the last hour and i should say we're relying on the. exit polls they have said it is a robust victory and yes he has retained a majority with the suggested the exit poll three hundred seats up to three hundred seats so the liberal democratic party has held a majority on its own but it's safe to say also on these figures that shinzo are they will be returned to power and will be considered historically as the they're the longest serving leader in japan's post for history as for the supermajority which is whether or not the l.d.p. and the coalition partner can hold or return or i should say achi

could launch the reformist conservative party last month to try and steer voters away from the ruling l.d.p. you care however is not running let's go live now to sarah clarke she joins us from tokyo seris the polls have already opened but we understand as a typhoon sweeping across japan so what are we expecting this typhoon land is currently sweeping across japan and will play a major factor i think in the voter turnout for this general election we were just a polling booth earlier the rain was light at that stage there was no wind but since in the the situation has deteriorated we've got heavy rain and the wind is on the rise all the way the intensity of the wind so the public on those grounds have been encouraged to vote early and having said that fifteen percent of eligible voters had gone to the polls before today's official election day which is being boosted or both in some kind of expectation that there may be a higher voter turnout but looking at the conditions we expect the typhoon to move across tokyo light of this afternoon the polling booths close at i came tonight which is when

it's an idea that's gaining popular support because of missile threats from north korea is ruling l.d.p. party approved changes in its congress this year allowing leaders up to three consecutive three year terms up from the previous two consecutive three year limit let's take you live now to tokyo al-jazeera sarah clarke is there so sarah we've got this typhoon bearing down on japan right now how has that affected voter turnout today. well we just had the latest numbers coming through in these the number the voter turnout at four p.m. saw a couple of hours ago three hours ago twenty six point three percent of the eligible voters have gone to the polls we're going to also include on top of that fifteen percent who voted before the official election day so we're still only looking about forty one percent now we've got a couple of hours or an hour at least before the polls close but since these results we've got two hours to see if those nuns numbers do bolter in any way but based on these numbers in the vote a trend so far it may fall to a little record low for the third consecutive lower

and the data from exit polls showed that the younger voters supported the l.d.p.es than older voters. so i think the young actually got a little bit more voice in this election. and i welcome that very much, because i think that's key for us re-establishing some kind of fiscal sustainability in the country. francine: when you look at japan, i know we touched on it a little bit at the beginning of the show, but actually what can they really do to work on inflation? robert: well, i think the things to get inflation back into the system are much more structural growth reforms. i don't think there's a magic bullet with an ever weakening currency that could solve it. monetary policy at this point needs to stay and keep it here. i agree entirely with that conclusion. so it's more structural issues to try to get price expectations back in and going to take a long time. so on the general thrust of policy, keep a steady ship and keep working a bit, kind of the boring stuff behind the scenes. francine: kit, we started the interview with robbie feldman on geo politics and, o