Yes Japan can?

(2009 Japan's election results, taken from wikipedia)
DPJ - Democratic Party of Japan (民主党)
LDP - Liberal Democratic Party (自由民主党)




Below are four BBC news clips on their fairly thorough coverage of Japan's 2009 general election, its brand spanking new prime minister Hatoyama and his cabinet. If you're pressed for time, watch the first and fourth videos. This probably sounds cliched BUT 2009 election may well change modern Japan.




about the party
new ruling Democratic party founded only 11 years ago
ran on a platform of aggressive change (Obama and Kimutaku?)

bold promises
reduced relationship with US militarily
serve the people, not big businesses

Japan in deep water
Japan in its worst economic slump since war
a significantly shrinking middle class
national debt no less impressive than US

recap on what happened last month
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TOKYO — Japan’s voters cast out the Liberal Democratic Party for only the second time in postwar history on Sunday, handing a landslide victory to a party that campaigned on a promise to reverse a generation-long economic decline and to redefine Tokyo’s relationship with Washington.

Many Japanese saw the vote as the final blow to the island nation’s postwar order, which has been slowly unraveling since the economy collapsed in the early 1990s.

In the powerful lower house, the opposition Democrats virtually swapped places with the governing Liberal Democratic Party, winning 308 of the 480 seats, a 175 percent increase that gives them control of the chamber, according to the national broadcaster NHK. The incumbents took just 119 seats, about a third of their previous total. The remaining seats were won by smaller parties. NYTimes
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