Shinzo Abe 'back from the dead' in Japan polls | Connect Asia

Japan scrambled fighter jets after a Chinese state-owned plane flew over the Senkaku Islands, known to China as Diaoyu.

It's the first incursion by a Chinese state aircraft into Japanese airspace since 1958, according to Japan's defence ministry.

The tensions could be favourable to the conservative Liberal Democratic Party, which is widely expected to win this weekend's election.

But it's been a tough three years for Yoshihiko Noda and his centre-left Democratic Party with natural disasters, the Fukushima nuclear meltdown and faltering economy.

Presenter: Liam Cochrane

Speaker: Dr Rikki Kersten, Department of Political & Social Change, Australian National University; Tsuneo Watanabe , Director of Foreign and Security Policy Research and a Senior Fellow at the Tokyo Foundation