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To foreigners, especially at first sight, the latest elections in Japan were hardly of interest. After all, it happens regularly in any democracy that a party steps down and leaves the reins of power in the hands of a freshly elected one. However, this political shift was plainly a revolution if we take into account a single fact: The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP) was in charge for 50 years. That represents an astounding record that would probably leave any authoritarian leader mixed feelings of jealousy and eagerness to possess the magic spell.

In the early fifties, Japan's ballooning markets enjoyed ideal conditions to shin up to the status of a global power: a strong and stable government, a wide and well-organized bureaucracy, and a population naturally inclined to social obedience. It seemed the perfect recipe for a booming country to make its way into the selective club of industrialized countries. Actually, the reasons which led to Japan gaining a place on the doorstep of the West in the 1980s are those that are to blame for its current lethargy. Japanese society is now trapped in an iron triangle constituted of three embedded powers - politics, economy, and bureaucracy. They rule almost every single part of Japanese life. According to this description, Japan is not drastically different from any other western society, except that this iron triangle is seemingly entirely disconnected from the Japanese population and the social reality. Obviously, the latest election results were the actual consequences of mistakes LDP has made back in 1997, when it failed to deal with the social consequences of the crisis.

Issues such as Japan's high suicide rate, the collapse of the pension system, and the development of ghettos were sidestepped in political debates for decades and helped to increase the population's frustration. For 50 years, LDP politicians have failed to tackle growing social problems. Actually they did worse than just fail; none of these issues were even on their agenda!

In a society where the disparity between the upper classes and bottom classes has been widening starkly for decades, the "winners" are few and the "losers" are many. By refusing to deal with social issues in the pipeline, Japanese governments backed up a stance in which success is only a question of personal willingness... and shame on the losers. Besides, as failure is the direct consequence of personal misbehavior or an individual's lack of quality, the government did not implement any kind of scheme to help those who dropped out of society. They are considered to be responsible for what happened to them and should be ashamed of their status, instead of being acknowledged for what they really are: an alarming sign of social disruption.

On the other side of the Japan political spectrum, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) offered an unusual alternative. Emphasis was placed on a more inclusive scholarship system, on increasing pension and healthcare allowances, and especially on reforming the old-fashioned bureaucracy. DPJ's manifesto triggered a surge of hope amongst a stolid population which was slowly growing tired of a situation that was going nowhere. However, nine months after a historic victory, the honeymoon seems already well over. Clearly, the former government did not have the indispensable means to keep their electoral promises. First, Japan's outrageous public debt is the world's second highest just behind...Zimbabwe, which hinders deep reforms in the education, healthcare and pension fields. The second reason lies in the lack of experience of Mr. Hatoyama and his government. Politics in Japan is an art mostly reserved to insiders who inherited power without gaining public support. This important feature of Japanese political life, combined with an openly defiant stance adopted by a powerful bureaucracy on any type of change, explains why prime ministers stay in office for less than two years on average.

The Japanese population used the only leverage for change at their disposal by electing a new party. Consequently, in order to meet the population's demands, Mr. Hatoyama needed to unravel the very iron triangle he is part of! Few observers were willing to place a bet on the DPJ being able to solve this complicated puzzle and the latest resignation of Mr Hotoyama set back likelihood of such an event even further.

Kevin Calonne is affiliated with Investigator Media Group s.r.o. in Prague.

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