Vigorous policy debates between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the opposition Democratic Party of Japan are likely to feature prominently in campaigning for the Nov. 9 general election, due to begin officially on Oct. 28. The buzzword is "manifesto" -- a published list of campaign promises. The election's outcome will depend largely on how voters evaluate the manifestos of the two largest parties.

At the top of the lists are issues related directly to consumer life, such as economic recovery, pension reform, educational reform and crime prevention. Chief among the foreign and security policy issues are support for Iraqi reconstruction, North Korea's nuclear weapons development as well as its past abduction of Japanese nationals, and constitutional revision.

It has been three years and four months since the last general election was held. In the triennial Upper House election of July 2001, the LDP rode to victory on the surging popularity of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who took office in April of the same year. But his administration has yet to receive a popular mandate in an all-important Lower House election. In this sense, the key question in the forthcoming election is what the Koizumi administration has achieved, or has not achieved, during its 2 1/2 years in power.