The Democratic Party of Japan wins the Lower House election by a landslide, ending more than half a century of almost uninterrupted rule by the Liberal Democratic Party.

Can’t say I’m not happy because I am.  Let’s face it Taro Aso destroyed the LDP and perhaps Japan in the process.  I haven’t heard such negative sentiment from Japanese people about a Prime Minister in a long time.  Hope springs eternal that Aso’s pride has been damaged so much that he goes and crawls back under that slimy rock that he came from, permanently.

While I am ecstatic that the LDP has lost I am also concerned about the future of Japan under the DPJ as well.  This landslide victory certainly makes one thing clear, Japanese follow the trend and do exactly what the rest of the group is doing.  That can be a good thing when the group has collectively made a good decision and a devestatingly bad thing when the group has acted like a bunch of lemmings headed for the proverbial cliff.  Does anyone else think it’s odd that 2 days ago the LDP held about 300 seats in the lower house and the DPJ around 100, now today the DPJ holds over 300 and the LDP around 115.  Hatoyama said in his speech last night that Japan has finally realized a bi-partisan 2 party system.  Umm, no it hasn’t … swapping the LDP 300 – DPJ 100 for a DPJ 300 – LDP 115 is not realizing a 2 party system, rather it’s simply replacing 1 party with the other.

Truly realizing a true 2 party system would have meant last night’s election led to a seat count in the Lower House that was more akin to the US Congress.  Having a slam dunk majority like the DPJ now has is a far cry from Japan realizing a 2 party system.  I think the voters of Japan felt more adamant about voting the LDP out of power than they did about voting the DPJ into power.  And this is why I am concerned for the future.  Today there are bound to be a heck of a lot of Japanese discussing the impossibility of Hatoyama/Ozawa/DPJ following through on their campaign Manifesto promises given the state of Japan’s current budget.  We’ll have to play a game of wait and see.
Oh and on a final note, I realize that the NHK translators were probably not doing the best job translating last night but nearly every candidate (including Hatoyama) that was interviewed sounded like a blithering idiot.  No wonder this country’s in such a mess.