Japan’s Elections: Center-Left Party DPJ Wins In A Landslide Victory

Latest updates 8/30/2009 @ 10:30 AM (PST). According to Japan’s broadcaster NHK, the DPJ has won 306 seats out of the 480 seats in the Lower House. DPJ’s Yukio Hatoyama, a Stanford University graduate in engineering, will be Japan’s new Prime Minister.

Hatoyama just made the following statement at a press conference, after his historical win, about what he wants to achieve as a Prime Minister.

“I don’t think people should become politicians unless they are determined. It goes without saying that I am determined to carry out the duties of Prime Minister, who bears the heaviest responsibility. We have being saying that people’s live hoods are the most important thing. Unfortunately, the politics to date did not realize that. I would like to bring about a Japanese society that will care about each and everyone, and where everyone can find a place to be and a place to work.”

Earlier today, before the elections

Today, Japan votes in a critical election which could mark the end of 50 years of conservative political rule.

The conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is considered by a large proportion of the Japanese to be out of touch with their daily problems and to have outlived its usefulness.

The Japanese have finally reached the conclusion that Japan needs some change. Of course the lackluster of Japan’s economic performance aggravated by the global recession is not helping the prospect of the LDP, the party currently in power. The unemployment has reached 5.4 percent, which is a high number for Japan.

Opinion polls predict a shift in power toward the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), a center-left  party headed by Yukio Hatoyama. According to the Japanese media, the DPJ could win a landslide victory of 300 seats out of the 480 seats in the Lower House.

The DPJ has an electoral platform very similar to the one of the Democrats in the United States. They want to focus on social programs, reduce the growing inequality between rich & poor, provide a free quality education & boost retirement benefits. Yukio Hatoyama, the DPJ leader, and likely to be Japan’s next Prime Minister would also like Japan to play a bigger role in world affairs, and he wants to be more independent from Washington than previous Japanese administrations.