In the the August 2009 national elections, the Liberal Democrats (LDP) suffered a massive defeat as the economy continues in the doldrums and corruption scandals fill the news and Prime Minister [[Taro Aso]] has shown uninspiring leadership. The LDP has ruled Japan for nearly all of the last 50 years and is generally conservative. The leftist Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has won by very large margins. Prospective prime minister and DPJ leader [[Yukio Hatoyama]] is part of the establishment. The son of a former foreign minister and grandson of a former prime minister, he quit the LDP party in 1993. If elected he is expected to distance Japan somewhat from its closest ally, the United States.
The DPJ has promised massive spending programs will cost 16.8 trillion yen ($177 billion) annually when they are fully operational in 2013, a huge cost for a country that has a large and rapidly growing fiscal deficit caused by stimulus packages and bailouts that never seem to work. Japan's national debt is nearly 190% of its annual GDP (gross domestic product). The nation was ranked #4 in the world in per capita income in 1989, just before its slump began; it is now down to #14. China, with ten times as many people, has almost the same total GDP and will soon surpass Japan.
==Geography==