So What Happens Now?

- Do the blogtariat writers and the Twitterati of China and South Korea pressure their governments into cutting off high-level meetings between a Noda government and their counterparts over his comments on the Class A war criminals the same way they compelled the Chinese government into a hysterical reaction over the incarceration of a Chinese fishing trawler captain last year?

- Do Ozawa Ichiro and Hatoyama Yukio, whose annointed candidate Kaieda Banri finished 38 votes behind Noda in the run-off, offer up a list of their followers whom they want to be ministers, vice ministers and parliamentary vice-ministers in the new government, or do they sit on their hands, sulking?

- Does a rush to the bond market, heartened by Noda's message of a reduction of Japan's deficts (reducing the debt is not a realistic prospect) send the stock market into a tailspin?

- Does the New Komeito think even harder about parting ways with the Liberal Democratic Party or do they cleave to their current ally, confident that as a unified opposition they will get better deals from a Noda-led government than if they try to cut a set of private deals with said government?

- Does the public get mightily ticked off by the abandonment of large chunks of the DPJ's 2009 Manifesto, or did the public never really care about the promises as much as they wanted to just toss the bums of the LDP out of power?

- What will be the form of Noda's tax that will pay for the reconstruction and recovery of the Tohoku region -- and how does he sell the plan to the anti-mainstream group of his party, the LDP/New Komeito coalition and the public at the same time?

- Who gets to be Secretary-General of the DPJ, the person who will not only decide who runs in what constituency and distribute the party's political funds, but will be the point man or woman on negotiating with the LDP and New Komeito?