Politics of Japan

The system of politics and government in Japan is based on parliamentary democracy, i.e. citizens vote for people to represent them in the National Diet of Japan, the nation's parliament, with the government typically formed either from members of the largest political party in the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Diet, or from a coalition of various parties. The upper chamber is known as the House of Councillors.

Yukio Hatoyama (鳩山由紀夫 Hatoyama Yukio) has been the Prime Minister of Japan since September 2009 and the president of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) since the previous May. The party won a landslide victory in the lower house parliamentary elections in August 2009, ousting the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) after 55 years of near-uninterrupted rule. Hatoyama heads a coalition government dominated by his own party, which is also the largest group in the House of Councillors.