Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi vowed yesterday to push ahead with his reform agenda despite suffering a setback in elections seen as a verdict on unpopular policies on Iraq and pensions.
Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has ruled Japan almost uninterruptedly for nearly 50 years, won 49 of the 121 seats contested in Sunday's upper house election, a net loss of just one seat.
The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) won 50 seats, up from 38 before the election.
PHOTO: AFP
However, Koizumi's ruling coalition retained its majority in the upper house after its coalition partner, the New Komei party, won 11 seats. It also holds a majority in the more powerful lower chamber of parliament, which chooses the prime minister.
Newspaper editorials described the results as a slap down for an "arrogant" Koizumi by voters who were angry he had failed to explain the planned overhaul of the creaking pension system and the decision to keep troops in Iraq deployed since December.
But senior members of the ruling party, who have expressed frustration at Koizumi's high-handed management style, expressed support after last week suggesting a poor election result could see him deposed as premier.
Koizumi said he would not change course on key policy initiatives. He promised to keep up the structural reform of the economy and said Japan would maintain the contingent of troops doing reconstruction work in southern Iraq.
"I believe the public is calling for the ruling coalition to work with the opposition to push for our reform agenda," Koizumi told reporters, saying his reforms were responsible for the current economic recovery.
But analysts warned that he could be punished more severely next time unless he speeds up the reform process.
Koizumi could be forced to resign or dissolve the lower house in next summer and call a snap election, in which the Democrats could win power, said political analyst Minoru Morita.
"I think it will be difficult for him to last two more years," added Yoshiaki Kobayashi, political science professor at Keio University.
Koizumi acknowledged that a majority of Japanese opposed his decision to keep troops in Iraq as part of a multinational force, but he insisted it was the right thing to do.
"Japan needs to continue activities which will be regarded as valued work there," he said.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
‘COMING MENACINGLY’: The CDC advised wearing a mask when visiting hospitals or long-term care centers, on public transportation and in crowded indoor venues Hospital visits for COVID-19 last week increased by 113 percent to 41,402, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, as it encouraged people to wear a mask in three public settings to prevent infection. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said weekly hospital visits for COVID-19 have been increasing for seven consecutive weeks, and 102 severe COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths were confirmed last week, both the highest weekly numbers this year. CDC physician Lee Tsung-han (李宗翰) said the youngest person hospitalized due to the disease this year was reported last week, a one-month-old baby, who does not
RSS