Japanese voters swept the opposition to a historic victory in an election yesterday, ousting the long-ruling conservative party and handing the novice Democrats the job of reviving a struggling economy.
The win by the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) ends a half-century of almost unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and breaks a deadlock in parliament, ushering in a government pledging to focus spending on consumers, cut wasteful budget outlays and reduce the power of bureaucrats.
The untested party will have to move quickly to keep support among voters worried about a record jobless rate and a rapidly aging society that is inflating social security costs.
“The people are angry with politics now and the ruling coalition. We felt a great sense of people wanting change for their livelihoods and we fought this election for a change in government,” Democratic Party leader Yukio Hatoyama told a televised news conference.
Media projections showed the Democrats set for a landslide win, possibly taking two-thirds of the seats in parliament’s powerful 480-member lower house. That matched earlier forecasts of a drubbing for Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso’s LDP.
The LDP’s deputy campaign strategist, Yoshihide Suga, acknowledged that the ruling party, in power for all by 10 months since its founding in 1955, was headed for a “historic defeat.”
The ruling party loss would unravel a three-way partnership between the LDP, big business and bureaucrats that turned Japan into an economic juggernaut after the country’s defeat in World War II. That strategy foundered when Japan’s “bubble” economy burst in the late 1980s and growth has stagnated since.
“This is about the end of the post-war political system in Japan,” said Gerry Curtis, a Japanese expert at Columbia University. “It marks the end of one long era, and the beginning of another one about which there is a lot of uncertainty.”
Financial markets have hoped for an end to the stalemate in parliament, where the Democrats and their allies control the less powerful upper chamber and can delay bills, but bond yields may rise if a new government increases spending.
Media exit polls showed the LDP winning just over 100 seats, down from 300. Its partner, the New Komeito Party, was expected to win around 20 seats. The Democratic Party had just 115 seats in the lower house ahead of the election.
Support for the LDP, which swept to a huge election win in 2005 on charismatic leader Junichiro Koizumi’s pledges of reform, has crumbled because of scandals, policy flip-flops and a perceived inability to address the problems of a fast-aging population.
But backing for the Democrats has been less than exuberant.
“It’s going to be challenging for the DPJ to allocate money properly, but I think we should give them a shot,” 38-year-old restaurant owner Yasuhiro Kumazawa said. “If it doesn’t work out, we can re-elect the LDP again in four years.”
Hatoyama, 62, the wealthy grandson of a former prime minister for the LDP, often invoked the word change during the campaign, a theme that resonated with voters, many of whom were prepared to give the Democrats a chance even if they were unsure the party would pull Japan out of its worst recession in 60 years.
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