The leader of a group of Japanese ruling party "rebels" who voted against postal reform bills said yesterday they now support the bills following the party's stunning election victory, virtually ensuring their passage.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has vowed to press ahead with privatization of the postal system, a financial services giant with US$3 trillion in assets, after his party's landslide win in Sunday's poll, which he had styled a referendum on postal reform, the core of his reform agenda.
His Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) took 296 seats in the powerful 480-seat lower house, the first time it has won a majority in 15 years, after he dissolved the chamber and called elections following defeat of the postal bills in the upper house when LDP rebels voted with the opposition.
Former education minister Hirofumi Nakasone, leader of a group of rebels who opposed the postal reform bills, said late yesterday that the 11 members of his group were now in favor after Koizumi's coalition took a majority in the election.
He said that the will of the Japanese people was now clear.
Support in Japan for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's government has surged since he won an overwhelming victory in parliamentary elections over the weekend, a survey showed yesterday.
A public opinion poll conducted by Kyodo news agency on Monday and yesterday showed that 59.1 percent of voters support Koizumi's Cabinet, up 11.8 percentage points from last month.
The passage of the bills is now virtually assured after they are re-submitted to the upper house during a special session of parliament that starts on Sept. 21.
Earlier yesterday, officials had said the actual start of the reforms was likely to be delayed for six months, apparently for technical reasons.
Media reports said Economics Minister Heizo Takenaka, who is in charge of postal privatization, told Koizumi in a meeting that the reforms would start on Oct. 1, 2007, half a year later than originally planned.
Officials had said previously that the reforms could not begin when originally intended due to delays caused by the defeat of the bills and the need to re-submit them.
The original bills contained a clause saying that if delays developed in setting up things such as information systems, the actual start of the reforms could be pushed back by six months.
Takenaka suggested yesterday he was concerned if the systems would be ready in time but that the election results were a clear mandate to carry out the reforms.
Postal privatization, which will create four separate entities from Japan Post, the world's largest deposit-taking institution, is to take place in stages and be completed in 2017.
The postal bills will be resubmitted to parliament largely unchanged, government sources said.
The LDP's coalition partner New Komeito took 31 seats, giving the ruling bloc more than the two-thirds of seats needed to dominate the chamber with majorities in all committees and to override objections from the upper house if need be.
Koizumi's decision to strip LDP rebels of party backing and send what the media called "assassin" candidates to take on the "traitors" inspired the usually apathetic electorate, boosting voter turnout to 67.5 percent, against 60 percent in the last general election in 2003.
The landslide vindicated the media-savvy Koizumi's gamble to appeal directly to voters to back his postal privatization plan, and his victory was cheered by financial markets.
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