A crushing defeat for Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic party in the upper house election on Sunday has revived hopes that the country is poised to become a “normal” democracy – a democracy, that is, in which rival political parties of similar strength but different ideas and policies compete for power and have the chance to govern.

With the exception of a single nine-month period, the LDP has run Japan since the party was founded 52 years ago. At the weekend, however, the LDP suffered its first defeat at the hands of a single opposition party: the Democratic Party of Japan won 60 of the 121 contested upper house seats, with the LDP winning just 37 and its Komeito ally eight. Shinzo Abe, the prime minister and LDP leader, may yet be forced to resign even though his party controls the more powerful lower house of parliament.