With all the focus on our webcast and Twitter updates last night, the liveblogging fizzled out.

Anyone reading this now knows that the DPJ won in a landslide and we’ve been getting questions about what’s going on and what’s going to happen at a higher rate than usual, the ones that really catch my attention, though, and test my powers of recall are the simple ones: “I live in [city], who’s my rep now?”

Or: “Did [candidate] win?”

Or: “I heard [candidate] lost, then heard he was still in the Diet. What happened?”

In other words, basic factual stuff - the stuff we all need to know before we can go off into other questions.

What’s been most surprising to me is the proportion of such questions that have come from people outside of Japan.

So, here are the results - just the plain results. It’ll take me a while to get them all up, but I hope to do so. I’m starting with Tokyo simply because that’s where I live and because it’s the biggest urban area in the country. If you have any questions or want me to get right to any specific district or race, let me know. (Read on …)

First and foremost, if you’re not watching already, scroll down to the post below this and watch TPR’s coverage of the election returns live on Livestream or Ustream. The audience is big and growing.

Edit: The links - The broadcast will start at 8:00 p.m., and will be viewable at Livestream: www.livestream.com/tprjp

If you can’t get into the Livestream, we are also broadcasting over Ustream: www.ustream.tv/channel/seijigiri-live

Why?

Because no one else is offering continuous coverage of this earth-shifting election in English.

Big night. Big, big night for the DPJ and the opposition camp in a good way; big night for the LDP and New Komeito in a bad way; very big night for the people of Japan, who should be happy with the enormous symbolic change and, I’d say, victory they’re in the midst of achieving right now. (Read on …)

As promised, Trans-Pacific Radio will be webcasting the results of Sunday’s Lower House election. The webcast will include Garrett DeOrio, Christopher Gunson, Adam Richards, and Ken Worsley. The broadcast will start at 8:00 p.m., and will be viewable at Livestream:

www.livestream.com/tprjp

If you can’t get into the Livestream, we are also broadcasting over Ustream: www.ustream.tv/channel/seijigiri-live

There’s no need to log in or create an account, simply open that page and you can chat by creating a nickname. We will also have our Skype account open and ready to take phone calls. Skype us at transpacificradio (one word, all lower case.)

It’s probably also a good idea to follow along with our Twitter account:http://twitter.com/tprjp

We will use the Twitter account to make any announcements in the case that our live stream is broken. Of course, we’ll also take questions via Twitter.

In the event that we exceed the maximum number of Livestream viewers, we have a second account set up at another service that we can switch over to.

We will be starting from 8:00 p.m., but we will not rest until we have conveyed the full results to you, our night owl viewers (unless we get really, really tired.)

So, pull up a chair and enjoy this groundbreaking, earth-shaking, superlatively hyperbolized election with your friends at TPR: at least 10% more fun than network TV.  

Thanks to Japan Probe for this one!

The title at Japan Probe asks, “The worst political commercial ever?” It certainly could be in the running:

The narration basically says something like, “Who can really protect your life and the future of this country? The LDP.”

James describes the commercial well in the final sentence of his post:

Even though I don’t particularly like Aso, it’s a painful to watch this commercial. The LDP’s web attack ads are truly skillful examples of political commercials, but this is a train wreck. Aso is not a popular prime minister. A lot of LDP politicans who are trying to hold on to their diet seats have deliberately avoided placing Aso on their campaign posters. Why would they want their national TV ad campaign to put the focus on an uncharismatic and unpopular leader? It’s almost as if they are trying to increase the scale of the defeat they will likely suffer on the 30th.

It looks to me as though the producers of the commercial forgot to give poor Aso a towel to throw in the ring. He’s sort of staring at them, wondering, “Where the hell is my towel? I went to izakayas to chat up students and talked to common-folk on trains and they can’t even remember to bring my towel?”

For worst political ad ever? I think it’s hard to beat Jerry Springer’s masterpiece from his 1980 Ohio Gubernatorial campaign:

Stay away from cheques!

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Be sure to spend election night with TPR. Adam Richards and Chris Gunson will be joining the Seijigiri guys on the evening (and late into the night) of Sunday, August 30th to announce, analyze, discuss, and otherwise have fun with the election results as they come in. Yes, as they come in. It’s a live video broadcast of Seijigiri.

In the current podcast:
Your hosts Ken Worsley and Garrett DeOrio return to disucss their favorite topic: elections. With a general election, and a real chance of someone other than the LDP really running the government for the first time since 1955, coming up on August 30th, there’s a lot to talk about.

Will the opposition DPJ win a majority? If so, how big might that majority be? (The numbers keep going up. While Garrett and Ken discuss the projections published by the Yomiuri Shimbun and Observing Japan, just after this was recorded, the Mainichi Shimbun blew Seijigiri’s collective mind by speculating that the DPJ might win as many as 320 of the 480 seats.)

How are the seats apportioned? What’s the difference between a single-seat district and proportional representation? How are lawmakers like the DPJ’s Akira Nagatsuma able to stay in the Diet even after they lose their races?

Perhaps most important of all, what’s going to happen if and when the DPJ wins? What pressures will they face? What will happen to the LDP?

All these questions and more are answered in this edition of Seijigiri.

Thanks for listening.

Listen Now:

 Seijigiri #59: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Greetings, TPR listeners and readers. That most exciting of events is coming up: a general election. Not only will this be the first such event in nearly four years, it marks the first time in over 50 years that Japan might see power really change hands. Will this be the first showing of a new two-party democratic order? Will it be more of the same? Will the challengers upset the reigning champions, or is that the incumbents maintaining their hold on power would be the real upset?

Nearly as exciting: Who, amongst TPR’s politicos and friends, is the dreamiest? On the evening of August 30th (and late, late into the night), you can find out. Adam Richards of Mutant Frog and Chris Gunson will be joining Seijigiri co-hosts Ken Worsley and Garrett DeOrio to cover the election live, in streaming video.

Join us to watch the results come in, chat about what they mean, and hear our takes on it all.

As it will all be live, TPR listeners will have the heretofore unique opportunity to interact with the show as it’s being made - ask questions, tell us where we’re getting it wrong, chastise us for insulting pols - all in real time.

Full details will come out with the next Seijigiri release.