Koizumi vows to push ahead with reforms

Junichiro Koizumi

TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi vowed to press ahead with postal reforms after a sweeping election victory.

Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) took 296 seats in the 480-seat Lower House of Parliament, the first time it has won a majority in 15 years.

Coalition partner New Komeito took 31 seats, allowing the ruling bloc to dominate the chamber with majorities in all committees and override the Upper House if need be. The alliance was reaffirmed yesterday after Koizumi met New Komeito leader Takenori Kanzaki.

The devastating defeat for the Democratic Party, which lost 62 of the 175 seats it had when Parliament was dissolved, has raised concerns about the future of a two-party system in a country where the LDP has ruled for most of the past 50 years, either on its own or in coalition.

The Democrats, who include former LDP pro-reform defectors as well as one-time socialists, could face a bruising leadership battle after the party's president, 52-year-old Katsuya Okada, stepped down to take responsibility for the election debacle.

A final official tally is due on Friday.

The landslide vindicated the media-savvy Koizumi's gamble to appeal directly for voters to back his plan to privatise Japan Post, a financial services giant that includes a savings bank and insurance business with a combined US$3 trillion ($4.28 trillion) in assets.

"The election was carried out under difficult circumstances at first," Koizumi said. "In the end, we got much more support from the people of Japan than expected.

"I accept the judgment of the people with a sense of great responsibility, and will work to pass the postal reform bills as soon as possible."

Koizumi will resubmit the postal reforms to the Upper House during a special session of Parliament expected to start on September 21, and their passage seems likely after several rebels said they would back the legislation if the coalition took a majority.

Pressure to move ahead on other policy fronts will be intense, from both financial markets and voters, analysts said, but Koizumi dismissed criticism that he lacks a concrete agenda.

"I intend to push forward policies on other issues of concern to the people, such as social insurance, in parallel with postal reform."

Koizumi, 63, who has long promised to reform his hide-bound party or destroy it, called the election after LDP lawmakers helped the Opposition defeat bills to privatise Japan Post in the Upper House.

His decision to strip LDP rebels of party backing and send what media called "assassin" candidates to take on the "traitors" created a buzz in the normally apathetic electorate, making the poll as much a referendum on Koizumi himself as on his policies. That helped boost voter turnout to 67.5 per cent, against 60 per cent in the last general election in 2003.

"He's elected a lot of people who are urban and reform-minded and not part of the old machine," said Gerald Curtis, a political science professor at New York's Columbia University. "With this huge victory, the centre of gravity in the LDP shifts. He hasn't destroyed the LDP, he's given it a new life."

- REUTERS