Japan's Democrats disappointing

The Democratic Party of Japan has suffered a crushing defeat in the upper house parliamentary elections Sunday. It was unable to fulfil many of the promises it had made like tax cuts and more transparency in governance, the conservative daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung notes: "The great hope of Japanese politics which sent the 'eternal' liberal democratic ruling party packing in a spectacular coup less than a year ago has suffered a setback in the upper house elections. The reason for the debacle is the disappointment of voters at the lack of change in Japanese politics and at the clumsy manouvering of the new prime minister [Naoto Kan] . ... Thanks to its majority in the lower house [the Democrats] will stay in government but in the upper house which can block the lawmaking process they will be dependent on alliances. This means they will have to invest a lot of energy in fighting for power while it will be difficult to push through a coherent reform policy."

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