Yukio Hatoyama of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) was inaugurated as prime minister in Tokyo last Wednesday.

With the party's dominant position in the Diet, it will be at least several years before the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), now reduced to a paltry presence, is able to make a comeback.

There was a pervasive sentiment of change among the Japanese electorate, and Hatoyama appeared to represent a paradigm shift.