Nobody was more pleased than the electric power industry when Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda made the surprise announcement Nov. 14 that he would dissolve the Lower House and call a general election. The industry hoped that this would clear the way for terminating the rule of Noda's Democratic Party of Japan.
The power industry had felt harassed by the DPJ ever since the party came to power in 2009 and especially after the March 11, 2011, disaster at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Especially annoying to the industry was the party's call for reforming the electricity supply system by separating the generation and distribution of electricity and fully liberalizing the electricity market.