Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) leader Yukio Hatoyama places a victory rose on a display board showing a list of DPJ candidates at the party's election campaign headquarters in Tokyo.

Yukio Hatoyama, who led his opposition¹ party to a landslide² win in Japan's weekend elections Monday promised to build consensus³ and avoid "arrogance⁴" in pursuing his party's political programme.

Media projections⁵ show that Hatoyama's centre-left Democratic Party of Japan won 308 seats in the powerful 480-member lower house of parliament in the Sunday poll, ending more than 50 years of almost unbroken conservative rule.

"It is an incredible number," Hatoyama told a live televised interview with public broadcaster NHK.

"We will not just bulldoze our policies.

"We must exercise patience and seek people's understanding because we are given such latitude," said Hatoyama, who is expected to replace Prime Minister Taro⁶ Aso by mid-September.

"We must shed ourselves of arrogance that might come from such a number," said the 62-year-old US-trained engineering scholar.

Hatoyama is set to lead Japan as the world's number two economy emerges from its worst recession in recent decades.

Hatoyama campaigned on a promise of change and people-centred politics against the business-friendly Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), headed by Aso.

Aso told reporters Sunday night that he would step down as LDP president to take responsibility for the huge defeat.

In the NHK interview, Hatoyama also confirmed he would form a coalition⁷ with smaller partners such as the Social Democratic Party and the People's New Party, despite policy differences on security and other issues.

The LDP was ousted⁸ from government for 10 months in the early 1990s, as smaller parties formed a fragile coalition to take power. But even then, the LDP, as a single party, held the most seats in the parliament.

由鸠山由纪夫领导的日本反对党（民主党）在上周末的众议院选举中获得压倒性胜利。鸠山由纪夫于本周一承诺在推动党政纲领的同时建立共识、避免“自大”。

据媒体调查显示，在上周日的大选中，鸠山由纪夫所领导的日本左翼党民主党在拥有480个席位的众议院中豪取308席，结束了（自民党）长达50多年的坚不可摧的保守统治。

鸠山由纪夫在接受日本NHK公共广播电视台的直播采访时说：“这的确是个让人难以置信的数字。我们（上任后）不会强制推行我们的政策。”

他说：“我们必须付出耐心，寻求人们的理解，因为我们被赋予了这么大的自由和空间。” 鸠山由纪夫将于9月中旬接替麻生太郎，出任日本下任首相。

他说：“我们不能因为得到的选票多就出现自大情绪”。现年62岁的鸠山由纪夫曾在美国留学，是一名工程学学者。

鸠山由纪夫将带领身为世界第二大经济体的日本走出近几十年来最严重的经济衰退。

在竞选期间，鸠山由纪夫承诺将进行变革，并创造以人为本的政治环境，以此与麻生太郎领导的强调经济政策的自民党竞争。

麻生太郎在上周日晚接受记者采访时称，他将辞去日本自民党总裁职务，为该党的失利负责。

鸠山由纪夫在接受NHK电视台采访时还证实，他将与社民党和国民新党等规模较小的政党联合执政，尽管他们在安全及其它议题的政策上存在分歧。

日本自民党曾于上世纪90年代初被赶下台长达10个月之久，当时几个小规模政党组成了一个并不牢固的联合政权。但即便在当时，作为单一政党的自民党在议会中也占有多数席位。

Vocabulary:

bulldoze：to proceed forcefully or insensitively（强迫，威胁）

step down：to relinquish one's authority or control; resign（辞职，下台）

give someone latitude:给某人回旋余地

oust from：to expel or remove from a place or position occupied（驱逐）