Japan Votes 2009

Finally, Taro Aso has decided to take his country to the polls. The LDP which has been the first, second, third, fourth parties of Japanese politics for fifty years looks like it will be defeated. There could be an earthquake in Japanese politics. Then again, since much of the opposition DPJ is disgruntled former LDPers, I'm not sure that a shift in governing parties would be a seismic shift in policy. This is all very frustrating for many in Japan who have been stuck in an economic slump for the last twenty years. That slump is now a full blown catastrophe in the wake of the economic collapse of the past year, with a significant number of people actually being unemployed in Japan; something that is not supposed to happen in the land of lifetime employment. Look for the increasingly old Asian power to continue to stumble no matter who wins the upcoming election.