Confusing?

From the New York Times, 12/17/12:

"Japan Election Returns Power To Old Guard"

"Tokyo -- Japan's voters handed a landslide victory to the Liberal Democratic Party in national parliamentary elections on Sunday, giving power back to the conservative party that had governed Japan for decades until a historic defeat three years ago."

That left me scratching my head.   The Liberal Democratic Party is the conservative party???

So I went to Wikipedia for a quick rundown on political parties in Japan.  And this is not an error.   The Democratic Party, the larger of the two major parties, is generally considered to be left of center;  while The Liberal Democratic Party is made up of conservative and centrist groups.

In addition there are about ten other minor parties, including the Social Democratic Party, the Communist Party, and a smattering of smaller groups usually based on some narrower focus.

Quite different from our slugfest of two giants.

Ralph