The Wire

Japan has had a change of government for the first time in 50 years, barring a brief ten month period in the in the early nineties. Voters handed power to Yukio Yatoyama and his Democratic Party of Japan over the distressing situation of increasing unemployment and casualisation, and the unchecked power of bureaucracies. The new party is promising to broaden and strengthen social security and address problems associated with the aging population by providing incentives to increase the birth rate.