The trouble with headlines like “momentous drubbing” and “mammoth upheaval” is the impossible expectations they set up for the next morning. The temptation is to throw open the curtains and imagine the whole place has been torn down like a child’s Lego set — with the newly triumphant Government towering over it, sleeves rolled up, ready for the post-tantrum rebuild.
This was not far off the cartoonish vision that Japanese television struggled to project on Sunday night — branding election coverage with comic-book tags like “Day Zero” and “The Decider”. For the ever-popular, ever-trashy Fuji Television, the quest bordered on desperation: how to persuade a yawning nation that six hours of election results were more compelling than its regular onslaught of pretty pop starlets looking