The head of the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party and the man expected to become Japan’s next Prime Minister following elections upcoming on Sunday says he’s not going to make any deals with the current ruling party for future governing.

Shinzo Abe says the LDP will work with its coalition partner, the New Komeito Party, and explore alliances with other parties, but explains how there are too many policy differences with the ruling DPJ to come to any accords. Abe, a former Prime Minister who stepped down for health reasons a few years ago, says the two parties differ greatly on issues such as nuclear power, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, free trade talks, Japan’s ability to maintain collective self defense forces, and the consumption tax issue, and that there could be no consensus.

“We have to take back Japan from the DPJ,” Abe saiys. “We need an economy that will grow. And we will create a Japan in which those born in this country will feel joy, and regain a nation in which our children will be proud to be born in Japan. The DPJ has had three years and has taken Japan off course.”

The LDP is widely predicted to win the Sunday Lower House of Representatives election by a fairly substantial margin.  Opinion polls indicate the LDP should win up to 306 of the 480 seats in Diet, with the projected tally representing a far higher level than the 118 seats the party currently has. The New Komeito party is likely to win between 25~ 31 seats, which would give the LDP-New Komeito alliance a two-thirds majority in the lower house, and give them the right to overrule the DPJ-dominated upper house.

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