LDP scores overwhelming victory

09/12/2005 The Asahi Shimbun

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and the Liberal Democratic Party won a landslide victory in Sunday's Lower House election, as the public gave a strong stamp of approval for his postal privatization plans.

"I believe that the voters have given us this victory because they positively evaluated what the Koizumi Cabinet has done for reform over these past four years," Koizumi said. "Minshuto's mistake was going against postal privatization."

He also had words for the anti-reformers in his party who voted against his postal bills.

"We destroyed the old LDP, and the LDP became like a new party," Koizumi said.

Voters, in fact, might have given this "new party" total control of the more powerful chamber of the Diet.

Asahi Shimbun projections based on returns and other information indicated the LDP had gained at least 270 seats, more than the 269 needed for an absolute stable majority.

Such a showing allows the party to name all the chairmen of Lower House standing committees_and to control a majority of seats on each of those committees.

That will make it much easier for Koizumi to win passage of the postal privatization bills when they are re-submitted to the special Diet session in mid- September.

"The will of the people was clearly defined by this election," LDP Secretary-General Tsutomu Takebe said. "I think the voters have given us approval as the party of reform."

While Koizumi can look for ward to the future, the main opposition party, Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan), will have to find out what went wrong.

Early returns showed the party falling well short of the 177 seats it had before Sunday's election.

Minshuto leader Katsuya Okada will most likely step down. He has repeatedly said he would resign if Minshuto failed to wrest control of the government from the ruling coalition.

On Sunday night, he indicated that he would stick to his promise.

"It's regrettable that our manifesto-based election was not widely accepted by the people, but I don't think that strategy was a wrong one," Okada said.

Koizumi overwhelmed Okada and Minshuto by emphasizing that the election was a referendum on postal privatization. Minshuto tried to focus on other issues, and was even criticized for being ambiguous on postal reform.

Minshuto Secretary-General Tatsuo Kawabata admitted his party could not overcome Koizumi's definition of the election from the very beginning.

"I believe these conditions show that we were unable to adequately explain our policies in the face of the simplified policy that the ruling coalition proposed," he said.

The election was in fact called because of Koizumi's long-held pet project of privatizing the postal services.

Koizumi dissolved the Lower House on Aug. 8 after the Upper House rejected his postal bills, even though the proposed legislation had been watered down.

He then purged some Lower House members of the LDP who had voted against the bills, and handpicked candidates to run against his opponents-- setting up intriguing matchups of reformers versus rebels.

Shinzo Abe, LDP acting secretary-general, said the ruling party planned to maintain its coalition with New Komeito.

New Komeito was struggling to maintain the 34 seats it held before the Lower House was dissolved.

But New Komeito will continue to wield influence in the ruling coalition because the LDP does not control a majority in the Upper House.

The two-party coalition was heading toward controlling two-thirds of the 480 seats in the Lower House.

The last time the ruling party has enjoyed such domination occurred in the July 1986 election, when the LDP captured 304 seats in the then 512-seat Lower House.

Based on that performance, then Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone had his term extended as LDP president, and therefore prime minister, for one year.

The same thing could happen with Koizumi. A landslide victory will likely lead to greater calls from within the party that he stay on as LDP president beyond September 2006, when his term ends.

While Sunday's results are expected to give Koizumi a mandate to push forward his structural reform program, it is unclear what direction he will take the nation beyond postal privatization. Koizumi and the LDP have spoken very little of their policy plans on other issues.

Koizumi did not visit the war-related Yasukuni Shrine in August because he did not want to anger Japan's neighbors and make the visit a campaign issue. But he also did not offer any clear plan to turn around the miserably low level of Japan's relations with China and South Korea.

Early returns indicated that a major reason for the LDP's gains was its strong performances in urban areas, which had been a stronghold of Minshuto.Many city voters appeared to have swung over to the LDP.

Two other opposition parties appeared to be holding on to their pre-election strength. The Japanese Communist Party had nine seats; the Social Democratic Party held five seats.

Kokumin Shinto (People's New Party) and new party Nippon, the two new parties that were set up by LDP rebels, were expected to pick up only a handful of seats each. (IHT/Asahi: September 12,2005)