Until Sunday, Japan’s public had not had the opportunity to pass its verdict on Shinzo Abe, the blue-blood politician anointed prime minister by the ruling Liberal Democratic party last September.

Voters clearly relished the opportunity. In upper house elections, they handed Mr Abe's party a crushing defeat and rewarded the opposition Democratic Party of Japan with a clear majority. It was the first time in the ruling LDP’s 52-year history – only nine months of which it has spent out of power – that it won fewer seats than the biggest opposition bloc.