DPJ first party to win more than 300 seats

TOKYO, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- The DPJ, which won 308 seats in the 480-seat lower house of parliament, became the first party to capture more than 300 seats in post-war Japan.

The campaign of the Democratic Party of Japan resounded well with voters who had been disenchanted by years of economic hardship, growing inequality, job insecurity and the near collapse of the pension system, Kyodo News reported.

The party had appealed for ''change'' similar to the campaign of U.S. President Barack Obama. As part of the change, lawmakers will have greater power in handling bureaucracies, the report said.

The DPJ inherits an economy that had been mired in the worst recession since World II, a downturn that had dogged the defeated Liberal Party of Japan and its Prime Minister Taro Aso, who leaves after being in office for only a year.

DPJ also must grapple with the nation's fast-aging society as well as runaway social security costs, Kyodo said.

The party, with its majority in the lower house, must now fight to retain its majority in the upper house in elections next summer.

The latest elections reduced down LDP's strength to 119 in the lower house from 300 before Sunday's polls.