• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Japan parliament set to re-elect Koizumi as PM

Posted on: Tuesday, 20 September 2005, 22:56 CDT

By Masayuki Kitano

TOKYO (Reuters) - A special session of Japan's parliament was set to re-elect Junichiro Koizumi as prime minister on Wednesday following a landslide win by his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in an election this month.

Ahead of the vote, members of Koizumi's cabinet tendered their resignations but all are expected to be re-appointed when he forms a new cabinet after his re-election by the lower house in a session that was due to start at 1 p.m. (0400 GMT).

Koizumi has vowed to press ahead with privatisation of the postal system, a financial services giant with $3 trillion in assets, after the LDP's stunning victory in the September 11 general election, which he had cast as a referendum on postal reform.

Koizumi, who has said he has no plans to stay on once his tenure as LDP president expires next September, has said he will re-submit the postal bills quickly and is expected to reshuffle his cabinet once they are passed.

Parliament is expected to sit until November 1, and media reports said a cabinet reshuffle could take place after that.

"Enactment of postal privatisation bills is the top item on the agenda," LDP secretary general Tsutomu Takebe told reporters.

The bills -- a pillar of Koizumi's reform agenda -- are expected to be voted on in October and appear certain to be passed.

The LDP took 296 seats in the powerful 480-seat lower house, the first time it has won a majority in 15 years, after Koizumi dissolved the chamber and called elections following defeat of the postal bills in the upper house when LDP rebels voted with the opposition.

A media survey published on Wednesday underscored the strength of public support for Koizumi and hopes for reform.

Koizumi's support rating rose to 62 percent in a survey by the Yomiuri newspaper over the weekend, up 14.3 percentage points from a similar survey in August, the Yomiuri said.

Disapproval of Koizumi fell to 29.9 percent, down 10.9 points from August, the newspaper said.

Asked to choose issues they wanted the Koizumi cabinet to give priority to, 61 percent of respondents said social security reform, followed by 57 percent who wanted steps to improve the economy.

Other top responses related to North Korea and steps to deal with a declining birthrate, the paper said. Postal privatisation came ninth among 17 choices of answer.

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category