Just as predicted by political pundits everywhere, Japan has overthrown the longstanding Liberal Democratic Party, the party that has ruled them for almost half a century.
Now another major player in world politics has turned its back on conservative rule and the new leader has come to power with ambitious promises. The new government leader, Yukio Hatoyama, has promised to focus spending on consumers, reduce the power of the bureaucracy and cut wasteful government spending.
Japan has suffered badly in the worldwide recession but its troubles started long before. Businesses, as in other market economies, had made a shift to casual and contract employment and many of them had lost jobs in the whole decline leaving many of them out on the street.
Many are not willing to pull out the bells and whistles yet. Like Obama in the U.S. and Rudd in Australia, Hatoyama and his Democratic Party have not inherited government in a time that will give them too much free rein.
Times are tough everywhere and in Japan there is a lot of repair needed to do first. Displaced Japanese had long tired of the Liberal Democratic Party, a government they believed had long ignored their interests and welfare.
Others have voiced concerns over Hatoyama’s ambition to have Japan more independent of the U.S. and renegotiate ties with Washington fearing that he may ruffle established ties with the U.S.
Just as in other western democracies, Japan has its own domestic problems and just as other democracies have done, they have turned to the left-leaning, community oriented party to do that for them.
The shifting trend is not isolated to Japan. It is a worldwide one.
