Moves to oust Japan PM seen growing after Tokyo poll

By Linda Sieg and Chisa Fujioka

TOKYO (Reuters) - Moves to oust unpopular Prime Minister Taro Aso will intensify if, as many expect, his ruling bloc fares badly in a key local election Sunday that is considered a bellwether for a coming national poll.

The main opposition Democratic Party is ahead of Aso's long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in opinion polls ahead of the closely watched election for the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, mirroring its lead for the upcoming national election.

"Depending on the degree of defeat Sunday, there will be panic," Hiroshige Seko, an upper house LDP lawmaker and vocal Aso critic, told Reuters in an interview.

"First, we will call for an early LDP leadership election and a change in the rules to allow that."

Aso's term as party chief expires in September and his critics want a vote to replace him moved to early August.

Deep doubts, however, persist over whether even that desperate measure would rescue the ruling bloc from defeat in a general election for parliament's lower house due by October.

"Even then, it will be extremely difficult," Seko said. "The mood is already set and it is hard for us to find a message to compete with the Democrats' call for a change in government."

A Democratic victory in the lower house election would end a half-century of nearly unbroken rule by the conservative LDP and raise the chances of resolving a deadlock in a divided parliament as Japan tries to recover from recession.