Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi vowed yesterday to press on with reforms after his coalition secured a win in a weekend vote which left him with a weakened majority and saw a stronger opposition emerge.
Analysts said the results showed the voters' desire for a two-party system to challenge the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and indicated that though Koizumi's reform agenda was safe for now, trouble lay ahead.
The incumbent three-party coalition led by Koizumi's LDP won 275 seats out of 480 in the lower house in Sunday's polls, compared to 287 in the last parliament, according to the final official result released late yesterday by the home affairs ministry's central election management committee.
PHOTO: EPA
The LDP won 237 seats outright, down from 247.
After the vote, three independent candidates joined its ranks, giving it 240 seats, which were further boosted to 244 when the smallest coalition partner, the New Conservative Party, announced late yesterday it would merge with the LDP.
The post-election horse trading means the LDP has now achieved its target of winning an absolute majority and in theory is not dependent on its remaining coalition partner. The two parties together now control 278 seats.
"We have managed to secure a stable majority," Koizumi said at a news conference. "I believe such support from a great many people has laid the foundations for our system to carry on reforms. I want to nurture the bud of reform into a big tree.
"Basically we will go on with the present system," he said, when asked about possible changes to the Cabinet line-up and his Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) executive.
Koizumi reshuffled his Cabinet to give it a more youthful, reformist profile in September when he was re-elected as LDP president for a three-year term.
The three-party coalition, also including the Buddhist-backed centrist Komeito and the LDP splinter New Conservative Party, was set to re-elect Koizumi as premier when a new parliament votes on the chief executive post.
The special session of parliament would be convened on Nov. 19, according to reports. The Cabinet would be officially named shortly afterwards.
As widely predicted, the largest opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), won 177 seats, up from 137 before the election, raising the prospect of a genuine two-party system after half a century of near-unbroken LDP rule.
"The political landscape is about to suddenly turn into a two-party system," the Yomiuri Shimbun said in its editorial, although it warned the DPJ had to resolve internal policy divisions before being ready to take power.
The DPJ "has some way to go before it reaches this level," it said.
Other newspaper headlines yesterday suggested Koizumi's reform process could face a rocky ride as the effects of his charm and charisma wane.
"Winds blow against his structural reforms," read one headline. "Koizumi magic fading," said another.
Koizumi took power two-and-a-half years ago advocating drastic economic reforms and scored an easy win in upper-house elections in July 2001.
The deeply conservative LDP old guard, which is opposed to his policies, have kept the maverick politician in power as a vote-collecting machine for elections while effectively reducing his reform drive to empty rhetoric.
Also See Story: Japan to keep slogging along: analysts
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique