On Sunday night, the somewhat ghostly figure of Yukio Hatoyama appeared on television screens around Japan. In subdued tones and against the backdrop of a drab party hoarding, he spoke grimly of his humility and appreciation of the electorate’s historic verdict. Anyone unfamiliar with Japanese would have thought he was conceding defeat.

His lack of triumphalism, matched by the total absence of street celebrations (not a car horn honked, not a fountain splashed in) was in keeping with the national mood. Japan’s public, in the words of Jeff Kingston, professor of Asian studies at Temple university, had voted for “change they don’t believe in and a leader they are not all that crazy about”. Their overriding aim, in an oft-repeated phrase that sounds distinctly odd in well-mannered Japan, was to kick the bums out.