GUATEMALA CITY — Japanese voters have rejected the one-party state under the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has supplied most of Japan's government leaders since the party's founding in 1955. (Only in 1993 had an opposition coalition ousted the LDP, for a short time, by holding onto a majority in the Lower House.)
After nearly two decades of poor policy choices that kept the economy in a deflationary funk, the LDP, led by Prime Minister Taro Aso, has been swept from power. As with the election of U.S. President Barack Obama, youthful exuberance overcame a moribund political party full of dinosaurs tone-deaf to demands for change.
The scale of the victory by the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) under leader Yukio Hatoyama was impressive — with the DPJ capturing 308 of 480 seats in the Lower House. The LDP now has only 119 seats, down from 300. Unfortunately, the DPJ victory may be simply a case of Tweedledee replacing Tweedledum.