Junichiro Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) wins Japan's Election (12 Sep 2005)
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and his Liberal Democratic Party cruised to victory, winning a majority in the 480-seat House of Representatives and giving him a mandate to push ahead with postal privatization.
Whereas, the main opposition force, the Democratic Party of Japan, was battered in the election. It was expected to fall short of the 177 seats it held going into the race, and its leader, Katsuya Okada, indicated later on Sunday evening that he would step down.
"The general public determined that postal privatization was a just argument," Koizumi, who is also LDP president, said Sunday (11 Sept) night in declaring victory.
He had called the snap ballot after parliament blocked plans to privatise Japan's post office - the centrepiece of his economic reform proposals.
The prime minister - in office since 2001 - had viewed the election as a referendum on his reform programme, which was blocked by rebels within his own party.
He took the unprecedented step of hand-picking candidates in key seats - dubbed the "assassins" by the media - to try to unseat those rebels.
Mr Koizumi himself visited railway stations, shopping malls and community centres hammering home a simple passionate message - vote for me if you want reform.
"I have advocated postal reform for many years," he told reporters as the result became clear. "The parliament said it was an absurd argument. The people have said it was the right thing."
As of 1:15 a.m.
Japan Time on Monday, the LDP had won 290 seats, while the DPJ had secured 107. Together with its coalition partner, New Komeito, which had won 30 seats, the ruling coalition easily cleared the 241 seats needed to hold a majority in the Lower House and his party and its coalition ally will now have a two-thirds majority in the new parliament.
The Japanese Communist Party had secured seven seats and the Social Democratic Party had won five.
Kokumin Shinto (People's New Party) won three seats, while New Party Nippon had yet to win one. Both parties were formed after the Lower House was dissolved and mainly consist of former LDP members who oppose privatizing the postal system.
The LDP held 249 seats in the chamber when it was dissolved Aug. 8, but the number fell to 212 when the election officially kicked off because it refused to put party lawmakers who voted against the
government's postal privatization bills on its ticket and made the issue the centerpiece of the campaign.
New Komeito had 34 seats going into the race, while the JCP had nine and the SDP five. Kokumin Shinto held four seats and New Party Nippon three.
Koizumi, the longest-serving prime minister in a decade since taking office in April 2001, has made breaking apart and selling Japan Post's sprawling savings and insurance businesses a centerpiece promise for his LDP, while the DPJ appealed to voters with a pension reform blueprint. The rivals also diverged on security relations with the United States.
The campaign issues resonated with a public at a time when the country's aging populace sparks worries about paying for future retirees and a fragile economic comeback needs a boost by streamlining wasteful branches of the government bureaucracy.
