In the Nov. 9 Lower House election, the governing Liberal Democratic Party lost 10 seats while the opposition Democratic Party of Japan gained 40. New Komeito added a few seats thanks to its cooperation in the election with the LDP, its ruling-coalition partner. The Social Democratic Party and the Japan Communist Party suffered devastating losses. Let's analyze the election results.
* First, voters began to have doubts about Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's mantra "There will be no economic recovery without structural reform." I have said all along that structural reform, or market principle-based reform, is necessary but that there should be no misstep in the process and tempo.
Koizumi's reform is flawed in its process and tempo. It is obvious that the reform unilaterally imposes pain on the underprivileged. By contrast, under Japan's World War II slogan "We shall give up our material desires until we win the war," all Japanese were supposed to equally share the pain.