Abe tipped to resume power in Japan Sentiment among Japan's biggest manufacturers has fallen to its weakest level since early 2010 - piling new pressure on the winner of Sunday's general election to boost the world's third-largest economy. Voter surveys published on Friday suggested the opposition Liberal Democratic party would win a large majority of seats in the Diet's lower house, allowing its leader, Shinzo Abe, to become Japan's seventh prime minister in six years. Mr Abe, who stepped down as prime minister in 2007 after only one year in office, has pledged to implement a large-scale public works programme and press the Bank of Japan for a more aggressive monetary policy. He wants to bolster growth and tame the chronic deflation that has dogged Japan's economy for more than a decade. The scale of the challenge facing Mr Abe was made clear by the BoJ's quarterly Tankan report of business sentiment, which showed that confidence among big manufacturers had fallen sharply. It was the fifth consecutive quarter in which pessimists outnumbered optimists and the survey, carried out over the 30 days to December 13, showed that spirits have sunk even lower than in the period after last year's earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis. Kyohei Morita, chief economist at Barclays in Tokyo, said Mr Abe's LDP could use the data to argue that "the government has failed to put Japan on to a continued recovery path." Newspaper surveys of voter intentions published on Friday found that the LDP and its alliance partner, New Komeito, were heading for an overwhelming victory over the Democratic Party of Japan. A victory for the LDP would mark a stunning recovery for a party that was in disarray three years ago, when it suffered a landslide defeat at the hands of the DPJ. According to the surveys, the LDP and New Komeito could win more than two-thirds of the 480 seats in the Diet's lower house - a super-majority that would allow them to over-ride opposition in the parliament's less powerful upper chamber. Without such a majority, the LDP would be forced to build a wider coalition in the upper house, limiting its ability to set the legislative agenda. Analysts said the BoJ's latest Tankan survey - which the central bank considers when formulating monetary policy - will increase expectations of further loosening after its board meeting next Thursday. Last week, Kiyohiko Nishimura, BoJ deputy governor, said the bank was ready to take "appropriate and decisive action." Although the yen has weakened in recent weeks, spurred by Mr Abe's talk of aggressive easing, large manufacturers said they expected the Japanese currency to average 78.73 against the US dollar in the six months to March. The negative impact of a relatively strong yen on manufacturers is compounded by China's slowdown and weakness in Europe.