Japan parliament set to re-elect Koizumi

TOKYO (Reuters) – Junichiro Koizumi was set to be formally
re-elected as Japan’s prime minister during a special session
of parliament on Wednesday following a landslide election win
by his Liberal Democratic Party last week.

Ahead of the parliamentary vote, all members of Koizumi’s
cabinet tendered their resignations at a cabinet meeting, but
all are expected to be reappointed when Koizumi officially
forms a new cabinet after he is re-elected by parliament.

Koizumi has vowed to press ahead with privatization 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 called the election after LDP rebels in the upper
house voted with the opposition to defeat bills to privatize
Japan Post.

The LDP, which has been governing in a coalition with the
Buddhist-backed New Komeito party, took 296 seats in the
480-seat lower house, the first time it had won a majority in
15 years and assuring that Koizumi will be re-elected in the
parliamentary vote.

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 will reshuffle his
cabinet once they are passed.

Parliament is expected to sit until November 1.