... of the University of California Hatoyama DPJ LDP election U.S.-Japan alliance DAVID ARASE Japan in 2009 A Historic Election Year ABSTRACT The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) defeated the Liberal Democratic Party in a lower house election, ending its 54-year reign. The DPJ began bold steps to democratize...

...Christopher W. Hughes Japan's reemergence as a "normal" military power has been accelerated by the "super-sizing" of North Korea: a product of the North's extant military threat, multiplied exponentially by its undermining of U.S.-Japan alliance solidarity, views of the North as a domestic "peril...