Yukio Hatoyama’s Democrats have barely been in office 24 hours. Yet already they have been painted by some as madcap socialists and by others as merely more of the same. Neither is true.

Mr Hatoyama’s essay on “market fundamentalism” has caused consternation in some Washington circles, where it has been received as evidence of Japan’s sharp turn to the left. But that essay was primarily for a domestic audience. It articulated many of the concerns about globalisation’s side effects that helped sweep the DPJ into power. José Manuel Barroso, European Commission president, found nothing in it that did not tally with European views on properly regulated markets.