Japan Set For Change, 50 Years On

As the Japanese prepare to vote in a general election this week, unemployment in their country has risen to 5.7 percent — the highest in Japan since records began. And unless the opinion polls have got it badly wrong, a party that has never governed — the Democratic Party of Japan — will win. This will bring to an end the rule of the Liberal Democratic Party, a political machine that has been out of power for only 11 months since the restoration of democracy after the Second World War.