ABSTRACT
In 2009, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) decisively defeated the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), ending more than half a century of one-party dominance, and raising hopes that Japan could finally reverse two decades of economic stagnation and recapture at least some of the dynamism that brought it fame in the 1950s and 1960s. The five guiding principles of the DPJ’s “manifesto” or electoral platform proclaimed the party’s determination to exercise responsible political leadership to overcome the entrenched resistance of bureaucrats and interest groups and improve the livelihood of the Japanese people (Democratic Party of Japan 2009: 4).
