JAPAN THROWS OUT THE CONSERVATIVES!

Voters in Japan have ousted the conservative Liberal Democratic Party, ending fifty-five years of nearly uninterrupted rule. In elections on Sunday, the populist Democratic Party of Japan captured a record 308 of the 480 seats in the lower house of parliament. It was the worst election performance for the conservative Liberal Democratic Party since the party was founded in 1955. One analyst described the vote as a bloodless revolution, the first transfer of power from one party to another in postwar Japan. Democratic Party leader Yukio Hatoyama is expected to become Japan’s new prime minister. He is a longtime critic of Japan’s close relationship to the United States.