UPDATE 1-Japan opposition LDP's lead narrows before Dec 16 vote-polls
(Adds Kyodo poll) TOKYO, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Japan's opposition Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) lead over the ruling Democrats and a new group led by a nationalist former governor of Tokyo narrowed with two weeks left to a Dec. 16 lower house election, newspaper surveys showed on Monday. A poll by the Asahi Shimbun daily showed 20 percent of voters would cast their ballots for the LDP, led by conservative former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, down 3 points from a Nov. 26 survey. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) came in second with 15 percent, gaining 2 points and halving the gap from a week ago. The Japan Restoration Party was third with 9 percent, unchanged from the previous survey. In a survey by the Yomiuri Shimbun daily, the LDP scored 19 percent, down 6 points. The DPJ and the Japan Restoration Party each won 13 percent, a 3 point gain by the DPJ and 1 point decline for the Restoration Party. A separate poll carried out over the weekend by Kyodo news agency showed the gap between the leader LDP and DPJ narrowing The DPJ swept to power in 2009, ending more than half a century of almost unbroken rule by the LDP. But its support has slumped over what voters see as broken promises, a confused response to last year's tsunami and nuclear crisis, and unpopular policies such as a tax hike and the restart of nuclear reactors.
Following is a table based on media polls asking which party voters would choose in the proportional representation stage of the lower house election.
POLL DATE DPJ LDP RESTORATION Asahi Dec 3 15 20 9 Yomiuri Dec 3 13 19 13 Kyodo Dec 2 9.3 18.4 10.4 Nikkei Nov 29 13 23 15 Asahi Nov 26 13 23 9 Yomiuri Nov 26 10 25 14 Kyodo Nov 25 8.4 18.7 10.3 Kyodo Nov 19 10.8 23.0 6.8 Nikkei Nov 19 16 25 11 Asahi Nov 19 15 22 6 Mainichi Nov 19 11 17 10 Yomiuri Nov 18 13 26 8 Asahi Nov 17 16 23 4 Asahi Nov 13 12 29 5 Yomiuri Nov 5 10 25 12 Kyodo Nov 4 12.1 27.7 10.8 Nikkei Oct 29 11 27 13 Asahi Oct 22 13 36 3 Kyodo Oct 3 12.3 31.3 13.9 Yomiuri Oct 3 18 36 13 Asahi Oct 3 17 30 4 Nikkei Sept 28 14 35 12 Asahi Sept 11 15 23 5 Kyodo Sept 2 12.4 22.2 17.6
(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka)