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...Ozawa's no-show aptly symbolizes the anticlimactic letdown that Japan - and the DPJ - is experiencing after an extraordinary parliamentary election. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, suffered the worst defeat in its 52-year history. Meanwhile, by taking 60 out of 121 seats up for grabs, the DPJ became the first opposition party to control the Upper House. The results seem to suggest that, after decades as a virtual single-party state, Japan has finally produced a viable opposition and a true two-party democracy, creating an environment where backroom politics would fade...
...Japanese public may be less forgiving. Before today's poll, Abe's approval ratings were scraping 30%, and many voters said they wanted to send Abe and the LDP a clear message. "Although the Upper House elections are not the election of the ruling party, I want Abe to take it as a defeat and resign," says Masamichi Watanabe, 23, of Wako city, outside Tokyo...
...While Abe will likely spend the immediate future quieting dissension within the LDP, the victorious DPJ will face its own difficult choices. With control of the Upper House, the party will be able to block legislation, although the ruling coalition's two-thirds majority in the Lower House will allow it to override most opposition. DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa could choose to throw the government into gridlock, hoping to force Abe to call snap elections. But playing parliamentary chicken is risky: such a move could prompt the public to see the DPJ as obstructionist and incapable of governing, a charge...
Virtually anything could happen over the coming weeks - one Tokyo TV station has even helpfully spliced its election coverage with dramatizations of the various scenarios, from Abe resigning to former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi entering the picture, with look-alike actors playing the roles of Abe and Ozawa. But what is certain is that Abe's vision of a stronger, more assertive Japan is finished for now. In one of the election's biggest surprises, the LDP's usually reliable coalition partner Komeito performed well under expectations - in part, suggests Jun Iio of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies...
Whatever happens, most observers agree that Abe and the LDP lost by focusing on revising Japan's pacifist constitution and making education more patriotic while ordinary Japanese were more worried about the country's growing income gap and its faulty pension system. Whether or not Abe resigns, the Japanese government will have to put aside its grander ambitions and make pocketbook issues a priority. "Abe couldn't figure out how to balance the people's interests with his own," says Etsushi Tanifuji, deputy dean of politics at Tokyo's Waseda University. Fortunately for Japan, the democratic system...