On Nov. 16 Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda shūin wo kaisan shita (衆院を解散した, dissolved the Diet's Lower House). In August he had promised to do it "chikai uchi ni" (「近いうちに」"soon"). The term is elastic and the governing Minshuto (民主党, Democratic Party of Japan, DPJ) stretched it to the full — understandably in view of the party's shijiritsu (支持率, support ratings), which currently hover around 19 percent. Asked why now, Noda replied, "Chikai uchi ni kokumin ni shin wo tou to mōshiageta. Sono yakusoku wo hatasu tame da" (「近いうちに国民に信を問うと申し上げた。その約束を果たすためだ」 "I said I would ask for the people's trust soon. This is to fulfill that promise").

He opened his campaign with a challenge to the public and to the opposition-leading Jiminto (自民党, Liberal Democratic Party, LDP): "Seiken kōtai mae no furui seiji ni modoru no ka" (「政権交代前の古い政治に戻るのか」, "Are we going to go back to the old politics that prevailed before the change of government?").

That appeal should pack a punch — more of one than it does. The seiken kōtai (政権交代, change of government) was truly historic. Since 1955, 自民党 had held power almost as a matter of course. Opposition parties were of little account. The 2009 election that brought 民主党 to power broke the mold. Stagnant, floundering, deeply conservative Japan had done the apparently impossible. Exercising a long-held but little-used democratic right, it had flung off a sclerotic old government and awarded itself a new one.