Japan's historic election

Japan saw its historic election recently. The party that ruled the country for more than 55 consecutive years (LDP) took a severe beating and paved way for the opposition party (DPJ) to form the government, in what was referred to as the first ever 'real election'. Being a nation that closely follows the foot-steps of USA, Japan was only 'quick' to follow the "Change we can" mantra of Obama. Or, it could be said that the global recession took its toll in Japan politics too.

Things that caught my attention:

• The DPJ leader Hatoyama's election manifesto had several 'populist' proposals that would make our Indian politicians look 'ju-ju-be'. Here are some:

--elimination of expressway tolls (Till now one paid Y24 (0.27cents or Rs.13) per
km for driving in highways ; unbelievable for those in USA who drive for free).
--pay Y26,000/month/child up to age 15 'to boost economy'. A family with 3
children below 15 will 'earn' roughly US$ 10,000 per annum! -quite unbelievable!
--elimination of 5% sales tax (unlike in India, there is no sales/purchase without this
5% sales tax. Elimination of this means a direct saving of 5% on your expenses).
--free high school education (Unlike in USA, high school education is NOT free in
Japan; till now it cost about US$ 3,500/year in public schools).

• Japan's new Prime Minister Hatoyama is the 4th consecutive PM whose dd/grand-dad was also PM earlier! (In a coincidence, the grandfathers of Hatoyama and his opponent Aso were also fighting the elections in the 50s; now it was the grandsons' turn.

• There were no electronic voting machines. In the paper-ballot, the voter should write the name of the candidate of his/her choice. (yes, 'hand-write'!). As the Japanese characters have complicated & numerous strokes, I asked what if the name wasn't written correctly. Nobody envisaged such a situation, thanks to Japan's 99%+ literacy rate.

Japan's historic election went without any disturbance to the public -the elections were held on a Sunday (as usual), and there weren't any loudspeakers or processions or public meetings on street corners or mega-size posters or garlanding statues etc. Yeh Mera India!
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