A Change of Diet

So the big news out here as of late is the national elections, which make it appear as if I will shortly be seeing my 5th Prime Minister since stepping foot in Japan. This time around it's associated with a potentially huge paradigm shift politically, but I won't even begin to act like I'm highly versed in Japanese politics. Just know that the swing was huge - the ruling party coalition of the LDP/New Komeito went from 300 and 30 seats in the Japanese Diet respectively to 119 and 21. The JDP in the meantime went from 115 seats up to 308, given it a straight out majority even without the others in its coalition. Other, more informed opinions on the reprucussions can be found here, and if you'd like to know what the new leader, Yukio Hatoyama, himself has to say then check out his NYT Op-ed here. Also, if you like numbers and statistics, there's some that have pointed to this happening for the past 15 years or so according to this over at 538, although Japanese politics is definitely not Nate Silver's bag (baby).

I also find that I must note a rather interesting observation I heard from someone I know, and that is the slight resemblence of Hatoyama (or "pigeon mountain", if you prefer) to a certain Christopher Walken... I'll let you be the judge.