JAPAN: Japanese voters sent Prime Minister Mr Junichiro Koizumi back into power yesterday but with a sharply reduced majority and a powerful opposition that has pledged to fight his decision to send troops to Iraq.
Mr Koizumi's party, the Liberal Democrats (LDP), failed to win an outright majority in the Lower House but managed to cling to office thanks to its rock-solid rural vote and the help of junior coalition partners, the Buddhist-backed New Komeito and the New Conservatives.
The LDP held 247 of 480 seats before the election, with the coalition parties together holding 40. Early results last night indicated the LDP would take between 214 and 241 seats, while the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) was set to take 170, up from 137.
The vote was widely seen as a test of the popularity of Mr Koizumi's painful Thatcherite reforms, which he began more than two years ago. Japan has struggled through over a decade of slump with record bankruptcies and unemployment, but the prime minister has claimed the credit for a recent rebound in the country's economic performance.
The election signals the arrival of the DPJ, which recently merged with the Liberal Party, as a major political force in Japanese politics, backed by the country's traditionally under-represented urban voters.
It also highlights the long-term decline of the conservative LDP, which has been unable to rule as a single party for a decade and which relied heavily during campaigning on Mr Koizumi's star power. Analysts said only low turnout and bad weather prevented the DPJ from making even bigger gains.
With results still coming in, Mr Koizumi claimed the narrow victory had given him a mandate to continue with his reforms, but most commentators agreed he had been politically wounded. Mr Koizumi needed a strong showing to help him face down rivals in his own party.
Asked on Japanese TV whether he would rethink these reforms or his support for the unpopular US-led war in Iraq Mr Koizumi replied: "Absolutely not. We will continue exactly as before." DPJ leader Naoto Kan told reporters he was "stunned"by his party's strong showing and said the election showed the LDP was "yesterday's force".
He also said it showed that voters strongly opposed Japan's unqualified support of the US. The Prime Minister has promised to send military personnel to Iraq by the end of the year.
The main losers appeared to have been the left, with a dismal performance by the Communists (JCP) and the Social Democrats (SDP), whose leader Takako Doi, lost her single-constituency seat. The striking political decline of the only two parties to oppose changes to Japan's long-standing pacifist constitution, reflects the steady rightward drift of the electorate since Mr Koizumi took power two and a half years ago, and means a controversial attempt to beef up Japan's military forces is in the cards, probably within the year.
Mr Koizumi is also certain to accelerate his structural reform policies, which include slashing Japan's huge public debt of nearly 700 trillion yen and privatizing airports, highways and the country's post office.
Despite the DPJ's strong showing and the long-awaited arrival of what commentators called a genuine two-party political system, some voters interviewed on TV said they were disappointed that the LDP, which has held power almost continuously since 1955, had managed to scrape back into power.
"They're like Dracula, you can never kill them off," said housewife Junko Ishikawa.