At the time of going to press, it wasn't yet clear if Japan's opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan DPJ was going to win a remarkable two-thirds majority, or a simple majority in the electoral contest against the incumbent Liberal Democratic Party LDP, which finished Sunday. But two things were clear the DPJ had secured a thumping victory after a half-century of almost unbroken rule by the LDP, and Japan's greatest advantage -- its 50-year experience of democracy -- is not being effectively deployed, in particular against its greatest rival, China.
Japan should have one massive advantage over China, namely the fact that it combines a first-world economy with the longest experience...