TOKYO - A MAJORITY of voters are ready to give the opposition a chance to run Japan, where the Liberal Democratic Party has dominated for most of the past 50 years, a poll said on Friday.

The opposition is pressing Prime Minister Taro Aso to call elections as soon as possible, hoping for a landmark victory.

Fifty-eight per cent of voters said they were ready at least to give a chance to the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), against 38 per cent who are not, the Yomiuri Shimbun said in a poll of 1,787 voters.

But asked whether they were completely convinced of the party's capability to be in power, 46 per cent said yes, compared with 67 per cent when asked the same question about the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

The conservative LDP has been in power for all but 10 months since its creation in 1955 through solid support from businesses and rural voters.

But the LDP has run though four prime ministers over the past two years after governments imposed unpopular cuts or cost hikes in social services and faced a string of damaging scandals.

Mr Aso took office on September 24 on a mission to lead the LDP into elections, but his initial approval ratings have underwhelmed some LDP strategists.

He has said that his first priority would be not elections but boosting the economy, which is teetering on recession. Tokyo's benchmark share index posted another massive fall this week, tumbling nearly 10 percent.

The DPJ has laid out a platform of increasing doctors and other social services as well as reducing the influence of Japan's powerful bureaucracy. -- AFP