By Linda Sieg
TOKYO, Feb 4 (Reuters) - The opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) looks increasingly likely to oust its long-ruling rival in an election this year, the DPJ's election campaign chief said on Wednesday, in a sign of the party's growing confidence.
And while a deepening recession might make some voters wary of putting the novice opposition party in charge of the world's second-biggest economy, the Democrats are betting more will decide a historic change is the less risky option.
"Last year ... a lot of people thought the ruling parties would be able to keep their majority, if only barely," Hirotaka Akamatsu, the DPJ's election campaign committee chair, told Reuters in an interview.
"But now, 70-80 percent think the DPJ can win a majority on its own or, in the worst case, together with (small allies) the Social Democrats and the People's New Party," he said.
"That's not just our wishful thinking. According to various surveys ... clearly, the likelihood of a reversal of ruling and opposition parties is getting very high."
Ousting the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has ruled almost without a break since its founding in 1955, would require a leap of faith by voters at the best of times, and economic anxiety has favoured a familiar pair of hands in the past.
Analysts estimate Japan suffered its biggest contraction since 1974 in the last quarter of 2008 after shrinking in the two previous quarters, and debate is heating up over whether a return to deflation looms.
But Akamatsu shrugged off any suggestion that the economic gloom would hurt his party's chances at the polls.
"Some may think that way, but others think that in a situation where we don't know what the future holds or when things will calm down, the economy can't be revived without fundamental change and a change in government," he said.
"I think the trend is stronger towards giving the DPJ a chance."
The Democrats are a mix of former LDP members, ex-socialists, and younger conservative lawmakers.
DPJ head Ichiro Ozawa, himself a former LDP heavyweight, has pledged to reduce bureaucrats' control over policies, shrink social and economic gaps, and adopt a diplomatic stance more independent of Toyko's close ally Washington. (Editing by Hugh Lawson)