Ahead of main rivals on polls giving opposition victory in Japan

Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) said it was “shocked” by its August 30 election drubbing at the hands of the opposition Democratic Party. There was no shock for Reuters clients as we had already called the outcome, spelling out days in advance that the Democrats and their allies could win. An insightful preview set the scene, showing that voters yearned for change and when the LDP’s five decades of near unbroken rule finally came to an end, Reuters broke the news from exit polls, beating Bloomberg by 37 seconds and Dow Jones by more than a minute. Using graphics, photographs, TV, analysis stories and blogs to convey the historic change in Japanese politics, Reuters outlined the risks and opportunities for stocks, bond and foreign exchange players as well as the diplomatic implications of the first election win by any party other than the LDP since it was formed in 1955. Reuters correctly forecast a bounce in the Nikkei and weaker Japanese government bonds when markets opened on Monday. The wealth of content ensured www.reuters.co.jp had its biggest day of the year so far, with 2.7 million page views, as many Japanese readers turned to Reuters to read about their own election and watch flipcam videos of Reuters correspondents exploring the political and market implications.