First of all, thanks to all of you who joined us on Livestream and Ustream to watch the election results come in - there were more of you than we expected and we were happy to see that the chat was active and that you asked some really good questions, offered some even better opinions, and cracked wise with the best of them.

Thanks also, of course, to Chris Gunson and Adam Richards for joining us to cover the election and to the following, who helped us promote it:
Japan Probe
Mutant Frog
Coming Anarchy
Observing Japan
. . . and many more (if we’ve left you out, please let us know ASAP, so we can add you and apologize for our laxity.)

As you might have noticed, we’re in the process of translating and posting the results of every race around the country - if we haven’t covered your district yet, we will soon.

Now for some quick headlines:

An Asahi poll shows that approximately 30% of self-described LDP supporters voted for the DPJ. A separate Asahi poll says:

Seventy-four percent of voters have high hopes for the administration led by the Democratic Party of Japan, but only 32 percent expect a radical change in Japanese politics, an Asahi Shimbun poll showed.

By comparison, 17 percent of voters said they do not expect the DPJ-led administration to accomplish much, and 46 percent of voters feel it will be politics as usual under the new government, according to the poll.

The face of the Diet has changed quite a bit. 158 of the 480 seats in the Lower House are now filled by first-termers. There also eleven more women in the chamber than there were in the last Diet - 54, as compared to 43 - most of them DPJ members. The DPJ also had more former members, with 52, reclaim seats than ever before under the current election system.

The percentage of “hereditary seats” - seats held by pols whose forebears held the seat - are now down to just over 15% from nearly 25% after the 2005 election.

The former ruling camp made some expected decapitations: outgoing PM Taro Aso announced on election night that he’d step down as head of the LDP, while Akihiro Ota, head of the New Komeito, who lost his seat in Tokyo’s 12th district to the DPJ’s Ai Aoki, told his party today that he’d step down.

As both parties look for new leaders, Minister of Health, Labour, and Welfare Yoichi Masuzoe said he would not run in the LDP’s next presidential election, slated to take place on September 28th, citing his service in the unpopular Cabinets of Prime Ministers Abe, Fukuda, and Aso and his attendant feelings of responsibility for the former ruling camp’s losses as the reason he wouldn’t seek the top job.

While the DPJ Cabinet is still taking shape, one big decision has been made: former DPJ President and electioneer par excellence Ichiro Ozawa has been named DPJ Secretary General, which will keep him where most would agree his strengths lie without taking him out of power. Keeping Ozawa happy and on board with what the new Government is doing is essential as a number of newly-elected DPJ Diet members owe their allegiance as much to him as to the party itself.

In foreign policy, the DPJ has said it would consider taking another look at the deal to move USMC Air Station Futenma, which is to be moved out of Ginowan to the Northern part of Okinawa at Camp Schwab and would include moving 8,000 Marines to Guam, but the US has said it would not renegotiate or reconsider the agreement.

As the general election was going on, so was Yokohama’s election to replace outgoing mayor Hiroshi Nakada, who resigned last month. The new mayor is Fumiko Hayashi, who was backed by the DPJ and supported by the PNP.