[Editorial] Japanese Politics Hit With Typhoon

Japanese politics has been thrown into a tumultuous state of uncertainty. The Diet's upper house has by a large margin of 17 votes said no to prime minister Junichiro Koizumi's plan to privatize the postal service. In response Koizumi has decided to dissolve the lower house and call for a general election. There had been endless debate as to whether it was right of him to bet his government on the proposal even if it was one of his key reform ideas, but no one in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) leadership was about to confront him and his determination.

Known as a "lone wolf" and "maverick," Koizumi was never your typical Japanese politician. It was strange enough when he beat a former prime minister, the head of the LDP's biggest faction, to win the party chairmanship in April 2001. The general interpretation is that he never would have been chairman and prime minister if a new system of direct vote by party members had not been introduced. He has enjoyed great popularity with lucid eloquence relatively uncommon with other conservative politicians. As of August 18 he will become the fourth longest standing post-war prime minister, and he is at a crossroad as a result of the gamble on the postal service.

We will be watching to see how far the change go in the Japanese political climate. The LDP's leadership plans to not run Diet members who voted against the bill as candidates in the upcoming general election, so it is possible they may bolt from the LDP and form their own party. If the LDP goes into the election split in two the main opposition Democratic Party could take the government, having created a sensation with its performance in the area of proportional representation during the last general election and in the Tokyo legislative election. Japanese politics is facing its greatest shakeup since a non-LDP government emerged in 1993 and briefly ended the LDP's 55 years in power.

The Hankyoreh, 9 August 2005.

[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]