POLITICS : Apathy May Be Leading in Sunday’s Japan Vote : Parties have offered few specific strategies to cope with economic woes or reform political system.

On Sunday, for the first time since the Liberal Democratic Party lost its 38-year stranglehold on power two years ago, Japanese voters will get a chance to choose new national leaders.

But the election for the upper house of Parliament is likely to offer only a hazy preview of future policies and a tentative picture of which parties will be around to carry them out.

Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama’s Socialist Party, currently the second-largest party in the upper house, will probably be the big loser, polls predict. Expected to gain is the conservative opposition New Frontier Party, the remnants of a reform coalition that backed former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa.

No party will win a clear-cut mandate, pundits predict. Voters are expected to give Murayama’s three-party coalition enough of a majority so that the 71-year-old leader can stay on at least until a general election is held, probably next year.

Although the upper house exercises no power in choosing a prime minister, its approval is needed for all legislation except the budget and treaties.

On a stumping tour in this commercial center about an hour northeast of Tokyo, Murayama won an enthusiastic reception from squealing schoolgirls. Crowds also gathered in front of railway stations to hear him speak with confidence about dealing with the aftermath of the Kobe earthquake and poison gas attacks on Tokyo subways.

Murayama, however, offered little insight into what his government would do to resuscitate the suffocating economy or the stagnating political system.

He promised to enact a “large-scale” supplementary budget to combat unemployment and tackle more than $455 billion in bad loans that is impeding recovery from three years of virtually no growth.

Makoto Taneda, the local Socialist candidate whom Murayama was here to promote, told voters: “We can’t let the economy get any worse than it is now.” He proposed $113.7 billion in additional spending.

The opposition New Frontier Party has proposed the same.

“No matter who is elected, nothing changes,” said the owner of a noodle shop.

According to a poll by Asahi Television, more than 50% of voters support no party. The fastest-growing group of disaffected voters, said Hiroshi Kume, an anchor for Asahi TV, are those most politically informed and who previously demonstrated party loyalty.

“The key word to characterize this election is apathy,” said Keiichi Kobayashi, a Socialist strategist in Mito. He expects only 40% to 45% of voters in Ibaraki prefecture, where Mito is located, to cast ballots.

Special correspondent Hilary MacGregor in Tokyo contributed to this report.