Japan Election Results: Opposition Democrats Win Huge Victory

TOKYO — Japan's newly empowered leader Yukio Hatoyama rushed Monday to select Cabinet ministers after his party trounced the ruling conservatives in elections, sending them out of power for only the second time in 54 years.

Hatoyama said in a victory speech late Sunday that he would focus on making a quick and smooth transition, and said his priority was choosing the nation's next finance minister.

Official results were still being counted, but exit polls by all major media said Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan had won more than 300 of the 480 seats in the lower house of parliament. That would easily be enough to ensure that he is installed as prime minister in a special session of parliament that is expected to be held in mid-September.

Prime Minister Taro Aso, conceding defeat, said he would step down as president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Although the vote gave the Democrats a landslide win, most voters were seen as venting dissatisfaction with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party more so than endorsing the policies of the opposition.

The Democrats will also face next year an election for the less powerful upper house of parliament. They have controlled that chamber with two smaller allies since 2007, but if they fail to deliver quickly on their promises the ruling party could resurge.

The task ahead for the Democrats is daunting.

Japan managed to climb out of a yearlong recession in the second quarter, but its economy remains weak. Unemployment and anxiety over falling wages threatens to undermine any recovery. The jobless rate has risen to a record 5.7 percent. After a rapid succession of three administrations in three years, Japan is facing its worst crisis of confidence in decades.

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In the long-term it faces a bleak outlook if it isn't able to figure out how to cope with a rapidly aging and shrinking population. Government estimates predict the figure will drop to 115 million in 2030 and fall below 100 million by the middle of the century.

The Democrats' solution is to move Japan away from a corporate-centric economic model to one that focuses on helping people. They have proposed an expensive array of initiatives: cash handouts to families and farmers, toll-free highways, a higher minimum wage and tax cuts. The estimated bill comes to 16.8 trillion yen ($179 billion) when fully implemented starting in the 2013 fiscal year.

The party has said it plans to cut waste and rely on untapped financial reserves to fund their programs. But with Japan's public debt heading toward 200 percent of gross domestic product, the Democrats plan has been criticized as a financial fantasy that would worsen Japan's precarious fiscal health.

Japan's stock market surged early in the morning on the news of the election, but then fell back.

"The key difference is the Liberal Democrats' spending on public projects and infrastructure, but the Democrats spend on family and education," said Martin Schulz, a senior economist at the Fujitsu Research Institute.

"The Democrats have a year to show results," he added, noting next year's elections are looming.

The Democrats are also under scrutiny for their positions on national security and foreign policy.

Party leader Yukio Hatoyama, set to become Japan's next prime minister, has been vocal about distancing the country from Washington and forging closer ties with its Asian neighbors.

Washington's new ambassador to Japan said the U.S. is looking forward to working with the new administration in Tokyo.

"The challenges we face are many, but through our partnership our two great democracies will meet them in a spirit of cooperation and friendship," Ambassador John V. Roos said in a statement Monday.

The Democrats first task will be to convince a skeptical public that they can actually lead.

"I feel very insecure with the Democratic Party of Japan," said 65-year-old voter Shuji Ueki a few hours after the polls closed. "They don't have a record."

The Democrats are made up of an inexperienced group of left-wing activists and LDP defectors. The party is just 11 years old, and only a handful have served in top government positions.

But Ichiro Ozawa, co-founder of the party, expressed a quiet confidence.

"We have no fear, and we will steadily achieve our campaign promises one by one," he said.

___

AP writer Jay Alabaster contributed to this report.

Comments

[jdreyfuss]

The landslide win by the opposition Democratic Party may mean a lot less change than could be expected. Japan's elected politicians never had much clout in running their governments, which remained in the hands of powerful bureaucrats as Liberal Democratic Party administrations came and went. The real issue will be whether the new government will have the will and the levers to unseat the unelected mandarins who have formulated policy, written legislature and instructed legislators how to vote for half a century. Unlike US legislators, Japanese politicians have very little staff and very limited ability to research and investigate on their own. Much of what Congressional staff do in the U.S. is in the hands of the permanent government.
The election may have less impact than the frustration of citizens tired of policies that have dealt Japan 10 years of stagnation and runaway public spending.

[loki]

all governments morph over the decades. I guess the Japanese have finally realized that a world in which Ivy Greed Capitalistic and Loony conservative ruled for over a century is coming to an end. Its time to focus on the people and not just on a few elitist and the profits they can make. I wish them the best of luck. Just wish our democrats werent so much like the Loony Conservatives and Ivy Greeders in our country and would actually do something for the people and not just the elitist. But, Greed drives most people who seek positions of power, so our own future is not looking good.

[SlithyTove]

No single party should be in power that long, not Japan's Liberal Democratic Party, not Mexico's PRI, not Syria's Assad-family Baath party, not the Chinese Communist party -- such 'longevity' is unhealthy for the polity, and sustained through unsavory means.

[DD1Prime]

54 years is too long a run for anyone. Japan's democracy is much healthier today than it has been in decades.

[BryanTheRegOps]

"a rapidly aging and shrinking population"
is this such a bad thing? I'm not trying to be cynical but isn't Japan extremely over populated?

But the Liberal Democrats seems to have some good ideas lets hope it works for them.

[Tunghoy]

Anyone want to bet how Fox Noise will spin this? They'll spin this as "Liberal Democrats got trounced" or "Japan rejects liberalism", etc. without explaining to their uninformed viewers that the Liberal Democrats are the conservatives.

[Hedgehogging]

You have no idea what you are talking about.

This new party is more Ron Paulish!!! They have libertarian, free market ideas!!!

YEAH BABY!!!

I'm an American living in Japan and I'm excited for liberty and freemarkets!!!

[Lean2left]

Apparently you are living under a rock in Japan.

"The Democrats' solution is to move Japan away from a corporate-centric economic model to one that focuses on helping people. They have proposed an expensive array of initiatives: cash handouts to families and farmers, toll-free highways, a higher minimum wage and tax cuts. The estimated bill comes to 16.8 trillion yen ($179 billion) when fully implemented starting in the 2013 fiscal year."

[Budokan]

You're too ignorant to know what you're talking about. This party that won is a LIBERAL party. Now go clean your mother's basement.

[Mitchbailey]

Most people in this country are uneducated on the tenents of classical liberalism as envisioned by the Enlightenment thinkers who created our nation's socio-economic and political philosophy. Historical liberalism is conservative, so the ambiguity in the word "liberal" masks the true nature of what it means. The free market, competitive individualism, and limited government are a few of the conservative principles of liberalsim. Tell that to Rush and watch his head e.xplode.

[Hedgehogging]

I couldn't agree more.

Also, the LDP of Japan were more like Obama/Bush whereas they thought the government should control every aspect of the citizens lives. They also believed in Corporatism something both Bush and Obama seem to follow.

What HP readers need to understand is that Japan has experienced "zombie banks" and TARP and other bad idea that Bush and Obama seem to follow and finally the Japanese have said enough is enough!!!

The Japanese understand that high taxes, bureaucracy and Big Brother are not healthy for a Nation. It took them 54 years to learn that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely!!!

[northstar11]

the national debt in the US is almost equal to the GDP
the national debt in japan is DOUBLE the GDP
worlds two largest economies run by "conservat­ives"--put it on the credit card---
both teetering on brink of bankruptcy.

[progressivegreg]

ok, I'll break out my tinfoil hat as I say this! The best way to keep social programs from being implemented is to run the nation into serious debt. That way you can always say "we can't afford it"! I really think that's what the 8 years of the bush regime were about, making sure the nation was destitute (and his friends very rich)

[RobinSeattle]

Actually, Japan had almost no national debt until the real estate bubble crashed. Then they tried a bunch of half-assed stimulus programs and reduced interest rates to zero and still the country's economy remained stagnant. The problem there is that they essentially allowed conservative and overcautious securities and banking entities to dictate those stimulus programs and that, coupled with the Japanese cultural aversity to risk, made those measures failures.

"Japanese economy finally hits bottom" (headline in the Asahi Shimbun in April, 1993). To quote Maxwell Smart, "missed it by THAT much."

[bootooyoo]

Let's hope they get the change they are looking for, unlike here in the US.

[JDHART]

haha

[BARRISTER]

Mr. Talmadge, you say: " Prime Minister Taro Aso, conceding defeat...". One cannot 'concede defeat '. One 'accepts defeat', and ' concedes victory '. In every instance he who ' concedes defeat ', presumably to a rival, would be actually the victor, as he would be acknowledging that his opponent is defeated by making the concession.

[ruffdeezy]

Funny how the Liberal Democratic Party in Japan is actually Conservative

[muypolitico]

In most of the world liberal is used to refer to laissez-faire parties. In this sense, the GOP is the liberal party in the US.

In some countries, the media will refer to the GOP as the liberal party based on its proclaimed economic positions.

[KarateKid]

And national socialist parties are NOT left wing. Remember the one in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s? They fought in the streets against the Communists and Socialists.

[Hedgehogging]

They are not conservative, they are Statist.

[inc3000]

what's with the red roses? wasteful...

[kskids9]

If a party here in the US offered me $275 per month per child I would vote for them to!!!

[northstar11]

same as what bush did with massive farm subsidies.

[AFAN]

Change has come under the Obama age! Thanks Japan.

[joocee102]

Same song just in a different tune. Its no different then what we have here in America. The people of Japan got fed up with the ruling party and field goaled their buttz out of the stadium. They expect change with the new noobs but as history has show us, greed can corrupt anyone.