LDP 119 seats; DPJ 308

This is the first time since it was founded in 1955 that the LDP has been anything other than the largest party (and the first time other than a brief hiatus in 1993/94 they've been out of power). A DPJ victory has seemed inevitable for some time (the LDP has run through a succession of hopeless leaders in the space of a few years), but I wasn't too sure we were going to get a landslide.

The interesting question in my opinion is whether the DPJ are going to be able to follow through on their aims of yanking back power from the bureaucracy, or whether there's a transition to a phase where the majority party varies between LDP and DPJ while the bureaucrats (who are always in power) get to consolidate their position.

Still, an election victory is always a nice birthday present :-)