Business leaders hope victory will break the impasse

What a difference three and a half years can make.

Disappointed Japanese voters delivered a knockout blow to the Democratic Party of Japan on Sunday, just as they did to the Liberal Democratic Party in 2009. In addition to giving his position of prime minister to LDP leader Shinzo Abe, Yoshihiko Noda resigned as leader of the DPJ.

Former Japanese prime minister Naoto Kan of the DPJ and eight members of the Noda cabinet, including Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura and Education Minister Makiko Tanaka, lost their Diet seats.