In an ironic twist, just as the Democratic Party of Japan government is considering importing elements of the Westminster model, British politics begins turning Japanese.
While Japan has a long experience of multiparty governments, the coalition between Britain's Conservatives and Liberal Democrats that ushered David Cameron into Downing Street on Tuesday is the first to govern the country since World War II.
The Conservatives' concession to offer a referendum on electoral reform was a key element of Cameron's successful courtship of Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, whose party has been badly penalized by the current first-pass-the-post (FPTP) voting system.