Japan's Democratic Party began talks on Monday on forming a new government, faced with the challenge of reviving the economy and reshaping ties with key allies after its crushing election win.

Yukio Hatoyama's centre-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) is under heavy pressure to get to work quickly on addressing the huge hurdles facing the country and pulling it out of its long economic malaise.

His team huddled to select cabinet ministers and work on the transition from the government of Prime Minister Taro Aso, who conceded defeat and said he would step down as president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

Japan's usually risk-averse electorate, frustrated with the country's worst post-war recession, punished Aso at the polls and forced the business-friendly LDP from office for only the second time since 1955.

The DPJ won 308 seats in the powerful 480-member lower house in the Sunday poll against the LDP's 119, according to collated official results.

Hatoyama, 62, who is expected to be confirmed by parliament as premier in about two weeks, is set to form a coalition with smaller partners such as the Social Democratic Party and the People's New Party.

The US-trained engineering scholar, scion of a wealthy political dynasty and grandson of a former premier, promised to build consensus and avoid "arrogance" after ousting Japan's conservative old guard.

"We will not just bulldoze our policies," he said. "We must exercise patience and seek people's understanding because we have been given such latitude."

His wife Miyuki sought to put a more human face on a man sometimes likened here to an "alien", in an interview with the Mainichi newspaper.

"He shows love without restraint" and always offers to do the dishes after meals, while having a secretive weakness for shrimp crackers, she said.

The DPJ has signalled a solid but less subservient partnership with traditional ally the United States and a desire to boost its regional ties, promoting a European Union-style Asian community and common currency.

Speaking a day after his party's landslide, Hatoyama was asked about an article he wrote for The New York Times last week containing a spirited critique of US-style capitalism.

"As a result of the failure of the Iraq war and the financial crisis, the era of US-led globalism is coming to an end," he wrote.

On Monday he told a press conference: "The article is not intended to show anti-American thoughts.

"The idea of an East Asian community is not intended to exclude the United States."

In Washington, President Barack Obama's White House said it expected a "strong alliance" with the DPJ and hoped for early consultations with Tokyo, including on the stand-off with nuclear-armed North Korea.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said there was no question however of renegotiating an agreement reached with Hatoyama's predecessor on new arrangements for a sensitive US military base off the island of Okinawa.

Hatoyama has in the past called for the United States to remove the Futenma Marine base.

"The United States has no intention to renegotiate the Futenma replacement facility plan or Guam relocation with the government of Japan," Kelly said.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the United States would not "begrudge" Japan under Hatoyama seeking closer ties with China or Russia.

US newspaper reaction was mixed, with The Wall Street Journal grumbling that Hatoyama might not "understand the imperative of encouraging entrepreneurship".

But The Christian Science Monitor declared: "While this enhanced democracy may diminish US interests -- which include using Japan as an 'unsinkable aircraft carrier' -- there are long-term benefits to rooting Japan's future more deeply in the wishes of its people."

Elsewhere, there was effusive praise from French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

"Our countries have shared policies, first among them democracy, of which Japan has just given a brilliant example, but also deeply shared interests and close contacts.

Reaction was more muted from Russia, which for decades has had a territorial dispute with Japan over a cluster of islands.

Russia is ready for "constructive interaction with the new government of Japan in the interests of further development of Russian-Japanese ties, and... trade and economic cooperation in particular," the Russian foreign ministry said.

North Korea sounded a sour note, urging Japan to break with its "crooked" past and apologise for coercing Asian women to serve in brothels for its troops in World War II.

Hatoyama is expected to make his debut on the international stage by attending the UN General Assembly and a G20 summit in Pittsburgh in late September, where he will meet Obama and other world leaders.

The new government faces the formidable task of reviving the economy after its worst post-war recession, with unemployment at a record high 5.7 percent, and of addressing a potential demographic timebomb.