On December 16, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) issued a party statement in response to the 46th general election of members of the House of Representatives.

As a result of the 46th general election, the number of seats held by the DPJ before the election was drastically reduced, resulting in the DPJ’s defeat in the election. We would like to offer our sincere gratitude to all of you for offering your support and we apologize for not being able to live up to your expectations.

Although the DPJ appealed to the people for continued support to push forward the partially completed reforms in an effort to live up to the expectations placed on the DPJ on the occasion of the historic change in government in 2009, we acknowledge and accept the tough verdict handed down by voters regarding the past three years of the DPJ’s performance. These include the DPJ’s inability to fully implement certain policies, and its shortcomings in the running of the government.

The DPJ accepts the verdict of the voters with the utmost gravity and will conduct a thorough review of its running of the government and the election campaign. We are determined to successfully revitalize the party through the efforts of the DPJ as a whole.

We promise to recover from this defeat and come back stronger than ever as a party that will live up to people’s expectations, before challenging the LDP once again to take back control of the government.

We offer our sincere thanks to all of you who supported the DPJ. Thank you all so much.