The Economist's Digest31

Leaders
The vote that changed Japan
Originally from The Economist September.5th, 2009

Summary:
The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) broke the half-century lock of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on power, marked the delayed destruction of Japan’s post-war political system.
There are three reasons to believe that this vote marks a big change. The first is the scale of victory—DPJ has more than half of the members in Diet. Second, the rejection of the LDP means deep changes in Japan’s political culture. Third, by overthrowing the LDP, Japan’s voters have thrown away a whole system.
Since 1955, LDP has created “iron triangle”, making prosperous growth and …corruption. LDP failed to respond to people’s needs, and ministers’ best intentions were undermined by party’s own benefit. Hence the voters’ rejection reflects they want an open and accountable government.
DPJ tapped into Nordic vision of their society; it rejected the free-market version of change. The party has also made mild anti-American noises about military and market. DPJ says it will put consumers first, and steer the economy away from export-led growth towards domestic demand.
All these depend on Mr. Hatoyama’s first task: redesigning government. The first challenge comes from drawing up the budget for the 2010 fiscal year. That is also a chance to show that the party is not wasting people’s money as LDP claimed.

My opinion:
Japan’s economy has been down for decades; of course, people want change. This new government has many different opinions and thoughts from the old one. It’s an important index of Japan’s change in their future industry prospect. They say they’ll boost domestic demand and consider consumers first. Thus, they should build a good welfare system, better than the one used now, first, and then the public in Japan will start to spend their money. If the new government do it successfully, Japan will have a brighter future.