Liberal Democrats win Japanese election

(Vatican Radio) Japan is likely to abandon plans to scrap nuclear power, and will take a stronger stand in international disputes, after an election this weekend swept an opposition party to power. The election was a landslide for Shinzo Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party, and a beating for the Democratic Party of Japan, which many voters held responsible for mismanagement of the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the hundreds of thousands of people still living in temporary accommodation.

But the incoming party is likely to scrap a pledge to pull the plug on nuclear power here, a policy it called "irresponsible".

Japan's huge nuclear industry carries significant political weight.

And pro-nuclear advocates say cheap electricity will help the economy recover.

Meanwhile, in foreign policy, the new government is likely to square off more firmly with China over islands Beijing claims.

Prime minister-elect Shinzo Abe accused his predecessor of a "diplomatic defeat", given the fact that Chinese patrol vessels now routinely intrude in waters adjacent to the islands and, on one occasion, a government plane flew over them.

But the leaders of China and Japan have not spoken in months and solving that diplomatic standoff will be a challenge for prime minister Abe, who's expected to take office a few days from now. Alastair Wanklyn reports from Tokyo listen