Free Republic

TOKYO, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- Japanese voters are expected Sunday to vote the country’s Liberal Democratic Party out of office for the first time in 55 years. The latest Kyodo news poll indicates 35.9 percent of voters are planning to back the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, an increase of 3.3 percent over last week, The Daily Telegraph of London reported Friday. Prime Minister Taro Aso has been portraying his opponent, Yukio Hatoyama, as inexperienced and says he is trying to win over voters with promises that are impossible to keep.

While the government hopes it can curb the falling birthrate by offering families more financial assistance, one expert says it's the lack of sex, not income, that lies at the root of the country's population problem. Kunio Kitamura, executive director of the Japan Family Planning Association Inc., an entity under the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, said the real problem is the growing number of "sexless" couples. A survey conducted last year of 936 people, aged 16 to 49, conducted by JFPA and Jichi Medical University in Tochigi Prefecture shows that 31 percent were "sexless" -- which the Japan...