Last November, two months after the inauguration of the Cabinet of Prime Minister Taro Aso, I predicted, in an opinion piece for the American magazine Science, that a sweeping change in Japanese government was imminent.
I wrote, "Perhaps the public, sensing the need for change, is pessimistic about the possibilities (of change under the conservative government), given that Japan has been so resistant to change over the past decade."
Like it or not, my prediction proved right. On Aug. 30, the Japanese public voted to give birth to the new government led by the opposition Democratic Party of Japan by casting off the Aso government and putting an end to more than a half-century of the de facto monopoly of government by the conservative Liberal Democratic Party.
Indeed, the election result has far-reaching implications for the future. For one thing, it has paved the way for Japan's opportunities to change. The election results may not mean that the Japanese public at large tried to penalize the LDP for the economic downturn, rising unemployment and widening income disparity — a view popularly hyped by the media here and there.
Instead, the result may indicate a rising awareness of the Japanese public's thirst for change and the realization that the LDP is unable to resort to necessary change due to its heavy ties with "establishments" and "stakeholders" built during "Regime 55," which generally refers to the half-century-long system of governance, started in 1955 upon the merger of two major conservative parties in rivalry with the unified socialist party.
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