Opposition DPJ crushes LDP in landslide victory+

TOKYO, Aug. 31 Kyodo -
The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan scored a landslide victory in
Sunday's hotly contested general election, dealing a crushing blow to the
ruling Liberal Democratic Party and driving it from power for only the second
time in its 54-year history.

The historic victory, which has given the untested opposition party 308 seats
in the powerful 480-member House of Representatives, will enable DPJ President
Yukio Hatoyama to become the new prime minister, replacing LDP President Taro
Aso, who has held the premiership for less than a year.
''I want to thank the people for their courage in choosing a change of
government,'' Hatoyama, 62, said at a news conference, declaring victory.
''We've reached the stage where people's wishes have almost come true,'' he
told reporters separately.
Aso, for his part, said he will step down as LDP president to take
responsibility for his party's defeat, telling a TV news program, ''I must bear
the responsibility (for the defeat).''
A special parliamentary session is expected to be held in mid-September to
elect Hatoyama, who broke with the LDP in 1993 and co-founded the DPJ in 1996.
The DPJ's runaway victory could herald the advent of a true two-party system in
Japan.
It is the first time in postwar Japan that a leading opposition party has
gained power with an overall majority in a general election. No party has ever
won more than 300 seats in an election for the chamber.
Disappointed with years in the economic doldrums, growing inequalities and job
insecurity, as well as the near collapse of the pension system, voters cast
ballots in droves for the DPJ, which appealed for ''change'' -- just as U.S.
President Barack Obama did in his presidential bid -- to give it a chance to
govern.
With the DPJ pledging to change the way lawmakers handle bureaucrats by giving
the former greater power over the latter, the party's resounding victory could
bring about a sea change in Japanese politics.
But the DPJ and its would-be coalition allies will have to grapple with a
string of problems that dogged Aso's government, chief among them the economy,
with Japan struggling to emerge from its worst postwar recession, and the
nation's fast-aging society as well as runaway social security costs.
And they may be hard pressed to prove themselves quickly so that voters do not
turn against them in an election to be held next summer for the House of
Councillors, where they hold a majority together.
The LDP suffered a historic meltdown with its seats whittled down to 119 -- a
far cry from the 300 it held before the election -- prompting Aso to concede
defeat on Sunday evening.
Aso said he will remain as premier until Hatoyama is elected next prime minister.
LDP Secretary General Hiroyuki Hosoda said on a news program on public
broadcaster NHK that he told Aso that he and other LDP executives would resign
from their posts.
The LDP has lost its status as the leading party in the powerful lower house
for the first time since its founding in 1955 by Hatoyama's grandfather, Ichiro
Hatoyama.
Many of the LDP's heavyweights -- former state ministers and party executives
-- were trounced in their single-seat districts, although many of them ended up
retaining seats in the chamber thanks to their double candidacy in the
proportional representation system.
Still, some executives in the ruling coalition of the LDP and its junior
coalition partner, the New Komeito party, were defeated by their DPJ rivals.
They include LDP General Council Chairman Takashi Sasagawa and New Komeito
leader Akihiro Ota.
A record 54 women won Diet seats, up from the previous high of 43 in the
general election four years ago.
Hatoyama and other DPJ executives started talks on a power transition on Sunday
evening. He is expected to swiftly launch a transition team to pick more
officials, while entering into talks with the Social Democratic Party and the
People's New Party, possibly on Monday, on forming a coalition government,
party officials said.
The DPJ has pledged that once it takes power it will cut wasteful spending,
provide cash handouts for families with children and phase out highway tolls to
improve household incomes to stimulate the economy, while promising to leave
the nation's 5 percent consumption tax unchanged for the next four years.
The party has also promised to put more power into the hands of lawmakers so
they can take the initiative in setting and coordinating policies.
On foreign policy, it said it would seek greater independence from the United
States, promising to propose a review of a bilateral agreement governing the
status of U.S. military personnel in Japan.
Because a record 13.98 million people -- 5.02 million more than in the previous
election -- had already cast ballots by Saturday, Kyodo News projects the final
turnout to be 69.34 percent, topping the 67.51 percent in the previous
election.
That would mark the highest turnout since the introduction in 1996 of the
current electoral system, under which 300 lower house members are elected from
single-winner constituencies and 180 others under the proportional
representation system.
Called by Aso after he dissolved the lower house in late July, the election was
effectively a battle between two parties -- the ruling LDP and the opposition
DPJ.
The LDP had been hoping to cling to power by retaining its ruling coalition
majority in the lower house, but voters forced it from government by handing it
a heavy loss.
Before the election, the LDP and New Komeito held a combined 331 seats -- 31
for New Komeito -- a two-thirds majority that enabled them to ram through
legislation, while the DPJ held 115.
The New Komeito had its seats reduced to 21, while the Japanese Communist Party
and the SDP retained their Diet seats of nine and seven, respectively. The
People's New Party secured three seats. Your Party, a new party founded by
Yoshimi Watanabe, who broke with the LDP earlier over differences with the LDP
leadership, won five seats.
The LDP was last out of power for about 11 months from 1993 to 1994.
During official campaigning that began Aug. 18, Aso, 68, made clear the
priority he has placed on stimulus measures, saying the economic recovery is
only half finished.
He argued against giving a popular mandate to the DPJ on the grounds that the
party tends to waver on national security matters, and said only the LDP is
responsible enough to govern.
Hatoyama promised to increase support for households, saying a DPJ-led
government will ''cut waste created in bureaucrat-reliant politics and
reorganize the budget in such a way as to spend money on what's really
important.''
The DPJ's control of the lower house is likely to end the legislative deadlock
in parliament, which had plagued the ruling LDP-New Komeito bloc for the past
two years, because the less-powerful upper house is already controlled by the
opposition.
While the DPJ and the SDP plan to form a coalition government with the People's
New Party, the two differ on foreign policy and security issues, among others
things.
The SDP, for example, opposes the dispatch of the Self-Defense Forces overseas,
while the DPJ would allow it conditionally, such as when the Japan Coast Guard
was deemed unable to handle an antipiracy mission off Somalia.
Aso had been widely expected to call an election soon after taking office last
September, partly because two of his immediate predecessors quit after about a
year in office. But as the economic downturn deepened, he vowed to focus on
reviving the economy and postponed dissolving the lower house.
In the last general election in September 2005, the LDP captured 296 seats
after then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi painted the race as a contest
between those in favor of his postal reform drive and those against it.
==Kyodo