Democratic Party of Japan leader Katsuya Okada is calling for voters' support in the Sept. 11 general election to bring about regime change and rebuild Japan in the face of ballooning government deficits and a rapidly aging population.

"This is the first election in the 60 years since the war in which a change in regime can be achieved," Okada said in an interview Monday with The Japan Times.

Okada said his party "wants to seize this opportunity and would like all the people to take advantage" of the chance to help the DPJ take power away from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which has dominated the political scene for most of the period since the end of World War II.