It's done. The brief age of Yukio Hatoyama is over, and once again, Glorious Nippon has gone and chosen a new leader to, ideally, bring back that whole "Glorious" part to the title. 

His name is Naoto Kan, and with his election by parliamentary vote Friday came endless puns on "Yes we Kan", and "The Wrath of Kan". For the record, Kan's taking up the seat will make the fifth new leader in just four years. Japan's going through prime ministers like a Kanu Unchou otaku through his figure budget.

There's still a chance for hope, though. Unlike his predecessor, and for that matter many Japanese politicians, Kan isn't the scion of some political family or an elite bureaucrat, but rather a former civic activist who fought his way through the ranks. Put in nastier words, he's got a common touch.

He's also got an apparently stronger set of core policy leanings, emphasizing open government and strength of conviction. That said, the problems Kan will be inheriting run vast and deep, ranging from the fate of the US military base in Okinawa to the whole "two-decade-long depression" that's been on the books since the late eighties. 

Here's to hoping Naoto Kan "Kan" succeed! Eh? Eh?

_{I'm sorry for that pun.}