I will be checking in periodically over the course of today — in between TV appearances. I should also be live-blogging the results this evening. I’ll be watching the returns and blogging from Reuters’s offices in Tokyo before commenting on the results for Reuters TV. (I would also recommend checking out the Trans-Pacific Radio webcast of the results.)
Meanwhile, please post your stories of things seen and heard on election day in the comments.
Tobias S. Harris 
On FNN, the election coverage segment began with the theme from the Terminator movies, and showed the Diet Building in front of a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Beautiful.
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I criticized you earlier, Tobias, for being prolix, and for saying essentially that those who were skeptical that jiminto would be swept from power – a paradigm-shift of an event – were uninformed. That struck me of a display of hubris. Nonetheless, the rapidly decaying economic situation here will likely see you vindicated, and yours has certainly been the go-to blog for election info, for which many thanks are due you.I certainly hope the DPJ wins those 320 seats today, if not more, though after seeing Obama continue most of the Bush Administration's worst policies, I'm hesitant to be too optimistic about how much change/reform the DPJ will be able to, or want to, effect.
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How long does it usually take for the beginning election results to come in?
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@Tanaka: from around 7:30-8:00 PM most TV stations start to report. The DPJ has a press meeting set for 11:00 PM. So be in front of the TV between those hours!
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Does anyone know where a foreigner like me can watch election coverage when the time comes, on the internet? Any live feeds for like the US Presidential election?
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On the most superficial of notes:1) Why didn't the DPJ make Kan their frontman? He's certainly both the most likable and telegenic of the bunch.2) Having gone with Hatoyama, why doesn't the DPJ insist that he grow his sideburns at least a centimeter or two. One reason that hairstyle of his looks so odd is because it seems to be perched on his head like a wig, with no kind of natural-hair transition. Yukio: it's not 1981 anymore; the no-sideburn look has gone the way of, I dunno, The Tubes.
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Pre-voting (期日前投票) 1.5 times up! I assume these include overseas votes? I know the Japanese embassy here restricted voting until one week or so before. Has there been some changes to voting procedures to allow early voting similar to the US last year?Anyway, still very ominous.
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http://www.transpacificradio.com/2009/08/29/details-for-sunday-nights-live-webcast-of-election-results/or you actually want to watch Japanese TV, this seems to work ok on even my not particularly good broadbandhttp://xorsyst.com/japan/watch-japanese-tv-online/
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No surprise, I am sure, but in Denenchofu there were people standing in line to vote, but by evening that line had gone. It's very unusual for there to be any lines at all at that voting station (the school).
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catoneinutica, regarding 1, see this.
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smartbeyoncefan: You might try NHK here:http://www.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/movie/election.asxThey are supposed to have special election coverage in English (Election Special). Don't know if it will be what you are looking for or even any good. Alternatively, there should be coverage in Japanese that you can access—just google \”live news Japan\” or similar. Or the old shortwave might pick up something.
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thank you very much D! It is exactly what I am looking for! You are brilliant!
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@catoneinutica, about Hatoyama's hair, you might want to take a look at this post from Shisaku for some perspective: http://shisaku.blogspot.com/2009/08/i-think-i-understand-now.html
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