The Japanese election was last Sunday, and as expected, the ruling Democratic Party of Japan lost ground, giving up a total of ten Upper House seats. It was a big setback for Prime Minister Kan (warning, sound will play), who took over after Yukio Hatoyama’s fail whale inability to resolve the base-related issues on Okinawa, make all freeways free and magically put $250 per child into the bank accounts of every family in the country each month. The opposition Liberal Democratic Party picked up seats, despite having no viable plan to fix what’s wrong with Japan and no stand-out leaders as far as I can tell. Another winner in Sunday’s election was Your Party…no, I don’t mean your party, but Your Party, also known as Minna no Toh (lit. “everyone’s political party”), which combines some popular reform policies of the DPJ with the pro-business stance of the LDP, the better to form a coalition with either group. While I’m not against the new party’s principles, any political party whose official English name is Your Party is just asking to be mocked by Stephen Colbert.
The Democratic Party of Japan faces a setback.
