Much has changed in the world of Japanese politics since Japan's Democratic Party took power a year and a half ago. First off Hatoyama resigned less than a year after he took office, just like his predecessors from the LDP. The general feeling among people is that they are disillusioned once again, with the knowledge that the Dems won't be able to make the changes they promised to bring about. One of the Dems at the top publicly admitted that wresting control from the bureaucrats, like Hatoyama promised during the election campaign, has turned out to be anything but realistic. The budget screening (jigyo-shiwake), which with a lot of fanfare they started in the form of public hearings, is beginning to look like a huge waste of time and energy, or a mere political stunt at best, as people begin to realize that these changes are just temporary small fixes and won't get into the core of the issue; the system itself that allows unscrupulous, lavish spending and funneling tax money into some special interest groups won't change, since decision-making bodies remain the same. Child allowances, one of the promises the Dems made during the election that seemed to have worked in their favor, turned out to be a trick. A tax hike on families with children more than cancels out the bonus money, but alas, mighty is the power of cash. It appears people are treated like brainless monkeys in the old Chinese sayings. The primary reason for their victory in the last election was because in their manifestos they promised to provide cash to different strata of the society, compensation cash for every failed agricultural effort, the child allowances for the families, and so forth. Their cash-based strategy did work fabulously. People are no better than monkeys that can be very easily duped. The guy behind all these plans, by the way, was Ichiro Ozawa, who's now having a real tough time despite deserving the most credit for the regime change. The initial planned amount of the monthly child allowance, 26000 yen, had been arbitrarily set by him on the spur of the moment, without any rational calculation or any financial feasibility taken into account. The amount was attractive enough, real good bait for the voters. But after the election ended in their landslide victory, the amount has been cut down to half and there's no prospect that it will be paid in full amount, just as expected for those in the know, but it's okay as long as people get their hands on cash. They won't complain. Other changes they promised to make, such as getting rid of the notorious special health insurance for the elderly, are taking too long to be implemented, and it would make a lot of sense to suspect that these reforms might be reversed as soon as they get out of power, as has been the case with the postal reform that the LDP promoted.