New York Times:
Published: August 30, 2009
TOKYO In a rare display of democratic muscle in this traditionally apolitical nation, Japan's voters cast out the Liberal Democratic Party for only the second time in postwar history, handing a landslide victory to the opposition in hard-fought elections on Sunday
The victor, the main opposition Democratic Party, must now tackle Japan's worsening economic problems. Almost as crucially, it faces questions here about its ability to manage the relationship with Washington.
Voters set aside doubts about the untested Democrats, a broad coalition of former socialists and ruling party defectors who campaigned with promises to ease Japan’s growing social inequalities and change the way the country is governed.
However, the victory is widely seen here as less of an embrace of the opposition than a resounding rejection of the conservative incumbents, whom voters blame for this former economic superpower's stubborn decline and increasingly cloudy future.
Prime Minister Taro Aso told reporters that he would step down to take responsibility for the defeat.
The Democrats won 302 of the 480 seats in the powerful lower house, giving it control of the chamber and far surpassing the 112 seats they held before the vote, according to a count late Sunday night by national broadcaster NHK. The incumbents took just 115, about a third of their previous total. Most of the remaining seats were won by smaller parties.
"This has been a revolutionary election," a triumphant Yukio Hatoyama, the Democratic Party leader, told reporters. "The people have shown the courage to take politics into their own hands."
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