Japan's upper house of parliament voted down legislation to split up and sell the country's postal service yesterday, prompting Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to follow through on a threat to call snap elections that could shake the ruling party's grip on power.
Defections from Koizumi's own Liberal Democratic Party helped defeat the reform package by a 125-108 vote, dealing a painful setback to the prime minister's longtime quest to privatize the postal savings and insurance businesses and open their massive deposits to private investors.
Koizumi called an emergency Cabinet meeting, and ministers -- with one dissenting vote -- decided to dissolve the lower house of parliament, Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said. The order was later read before the lower house at a specially called session, after which the disbanded lawmakers filed out of the chamber.
PHOTO: AFP
"The upper house decided that postal privatization is not needed. So I would like to ask the general public whether it supports or opposes it. That's why I dissolved parliament," Koizumi told a group of reporters after the dissolution was announced. "I will do my best to win the elections so that I can continue the reforms."
September election
Media reports said the LDP and its coalition partner, the Komeito Party, had agreed to hold the ballot on Sept. 11. Campaigning for the chamber's 480 seats was to begin Aug. 30.
The dissent over the package revealed deep divisions within the LDP, which has held onto power almost continuously since its founding in 1955. Reform was expected to be a major issue in the campaign, and some speculated that it could split the LDP into separate camps.
The legislative package would have created the world's largest private bank, but opposition was strong among opposition and LDP lawmakers who said the measure would cut postal services to rural areas and lead to layoffs.
Proponents were disheartened by the vote.
"These were the bills that put us at the crossroads, whether Japan can create a small government or it is headed toward creating a big government," said Economy Minister Heizo Takenaka, the main architect of the reform. "The rejection is a major blow to Japan's future and its economy."
The opposition Democratic Party, meanwhile, started gearing up for an election fight, submitting a no-confidence measure against Koizumi's government.
That move was cut short by the lower house's dissolution, but the Democratic Party has made strong gains in elections last year's upper house elections and in the previous lower house ballot in 2003.
Opposition hopeful
"We've been steadily making efforts for this day," Democratic Party leader Katsuya Okada told his party members. "Now we have finally come to this opportunity to change the government."
Shizuka Kamei, a leading LDP opponent of the reforms, suggested he regretted the divisions that the legislation had created within the ruling party. Top lawmakers had tried to convince Koizumi over the weekend not to go ahead with his election threat.
"The results shows the conscience of the upper house," Kamei said. "The prime minister should come to his senses. It will be bad for Japan if we do something like this over and over."
Proponents of the reform said it was needed to put the postal saving system's massive deposits into the hands of private investors and provide a strong jump-start to the economy, which is only now emerging from a decade-long slowdown.
MILITARY BOOST: The procurement was planned after Washington recommended that Taiwan increase its stock of air defense missiles, a defense official said yesterday Taiwan is planning to order an additional four PAC-3 MSE systems and up to 500 missiles in response to an increasing number of missile sites on China’s east coast, a defense official said yesterday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the proposed order would be placed using the defense procurement special budget, adding that about NT$1 trillion (US$32,88 billion) has been allocated for the budget. The proposed acquisition would include launchers, missiles, and a lower tier air and missile defense radar system, they said The procurement was planned after the US military recommended that Taiwan increase
POLITICAL AGENDA: Beijing’s cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival events are part of a ‘cultural united front’ aimed at promoting unification with Taiwan, academics said Local authorities in China have been inviting Taiwanese to participate in cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations centered around ideals of “family and nation,” a move Taiwanese academics said politicizes the holiday to promote the idea of “one family” across the Taiwan Strait. Sources said that China’s Fujian Provincial Government is organizing about 20 cross-strait-themed events in cities including Quanzhou, Nanping, Sanming and Zhangzhou. In Zhangzhou, a festival scheduled for Wednesday is to showcase Minnan-language songs and budaixi (布袋戲) glove puppetry to highlight cultural similarities between Taiwan and the region. Elsewhere, Jiangsu Province is hosting more than 10 similar celebrations in Taizhou, Changzhou, Suzhou,
COGNITIVE WARFARE: Chinese fishing boats transmitting fake identification signals are meant to test Taiwan’s responses to different kinds of perceived incursions, a report said Chinese vessels are transmitting fake signals in Taiwan’s waters as a form of cognitive warfare, testing Taipei’s responses to various types of incursions, a report by the Institute for the Study of War said on Friday. Several Chinese fishing vessels transmitted fake automatic identification system (AIS) signals in Taiwan’s waters last month, with one mimicking a Russian warship and another impersonating a Chinese law enforcement vessel, the report said. Citing data from Starboard Maritime Intelligence, the report said that throughout August and last month, the Chinese fishing boat Minshiyu 06718 (閩獅漁06718) sailed through the Taiwan Strait while intermittently transmitting its own AIS
CHINESE INFILTRATION: Medical logistics is a lifeline during wartime and the reported CCP links of a major logistics company present a national security threat, an expert said The government would bolster its security check system to prevent China from infiltrating the nation’s medical cold chain, a national security official said yesterday. The official, who wished to stay anonymous, made the remarks after the Chinese-language magazine Mirror Media (鏡周刊) reported that Pharma Logistics (嘉里醫藥物流) is in charge of the medical logistics of about half of the nation’s major hospitals, including National Taiwan University Hospital and Taipei Veterans General Hospital. The company’s parent, Kerry TJ Logistics Co (嘉里大榮物流), is associated with the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the
RSS