Yesterday’s election in Japan resulted in a landslide victory for Junichiro Koizumi’s incumbent Liberal Democratic Party. I can’t find any official vote totals yet, but The New York Timesreports that the LDP has won 296 of the 480 seats, against 113 for the main opposition party (see here for a dramatic pie-chart.) Together with its coalition partner Komeito, which won 31, the LDP will have a two-thirds majority in the lower house, enough to override any further obstruction by the upper house.

Compared to the Australian debate over Telstra, Japan seems like an alternate universe. Over here, public reaction to privatisation ranges from resigned acceptance to fevered opposition; even among its supporters there is a palpable lack of enthusiasm. But in Japan, privatisation of the post office has been a big vote winner; as the Times reports, “All seven parties vying in the election said they supported reform, an indication of the deep-rooted popular desire for change.”

It could have been like that here; Australia once was full of giant state-owned monopolies that soaked up capital and delivered atrocious service in return. But no government ever tried to harness resentment against them. When governments of both sides finally embraced privatisation, they did it to raise money, so they talked up the monopolies as great Australian icons – to do otherwise would have lowered the sale price. No wonder privatisation was unpopular: if these companies were so great, why sell them?

So the monopoly cultures remained largely intact; Qantas, for example, continues to deliver the same poor service as it did when it was government-owned. And we have the absurd situation where the government feels it has to prove Telstra’s service is up to scratch before selling it – instead of saying “We know the service is shocking, that’s why we need privatisation.” Even more weirdly, as the government tries to talk up Telstra, the opposition is talking it down – “Service is in dreadful shape, so we have to keep things just as they are.”

Is it Japan that’s got things topsy-turvy, or is it us?