Japan: Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi yesterday called a November 9th election that will test whether he can turn his personal popularity into an emphatic win for his conservative party and claim a new mandate for change.
Lower House lawmakers shouted the traditional "Banzai" ("long life") after House Speaker Tamisuke Watanuki read out an order to dissolve the powerful chamber.
A cabinet meeting later formally set November 9th as the election day for a campaign that will kick off on October 28th.
The general election will be the first since Koizumi swept to power in 2001 on a wave of grassroots support for his reform agenda to rein in public spending, privatise postal services and money-guzzling public firms, and fix Japan's ailing banks.
"This will be a 'reform election'," Koizumi told lawmakers from his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) after the dissolution. "I seek your support to win the confidence of the people that the LDP has really changed." Buoyed by signs that Japan's long-stagnant economy is at last recovering, the LDP is counting on traditional backers such as farmers and small business owners, plus Koizumi's popularity, to help it keep a majority in the 480-seat Lower House.
A surge in the yen to three-year highs against the dollar has, however, clouded the outlook for the export-led recovery.
As if with that in mind, the Bank of Japan unexpectedly eased its monetary policy on Friday by increasing the amount of funds sloshing around the financial system.
The ruling bloc - the LDP and its junior partners, the Buddhist-backed New Komeito and the New Conservative Party - held 285 seats in the chamber prior to dissolution.
The LDP alone had 244 against 137 for the opposition Democratic Party, which hopes its recent merger with a smaller rival and a detailed platform of its own reform ideas will improve its prospects.
"I think it will be the first real election in 10 years where the administration will be at stake," Democratic Party leader Naoto Kan told reporters, referring to 1993, when the LDP lost power for the only time in its nearly 50-year history.
"I think there are few people who think the current situation in Japan is good. I want the people of Japan to feel courage, that their one vote can change Japan," Kan added.
Koizumi's support ratings leapt by as much as 20 percentage points to more than 60 per cent of voters after he shook up top party and cabinet posts last month, putting several youthful, media-friendly politicians in the limelight.
"Things have changed since Koizumi came to power. People say nothing has changed, but things have," said Yukiko Kumagai, 30, a tea ceremony student. "I think the general direction of society has changed, so I think we should continue like this." Koizumi's ratings could get a further boost from media coverage of his meeting with US President George W Bush in Tokyo next Friday.
That strategy might backfire, though, if Koizumi seems to be bowing too deeply to US demands for hefty financial aid and significant participation by Japanese troops in rebuilding Iraq, an issue that will be high on the two leaders' agenda.
Some LDP members said Koizumi's popularity might not be enough to keep the party from losing its majority, although they expect it to stay in power with the aid of its two partners. If the LDP does fail to maintain its majority, or barely keeps it, Koizumi's old-guard rivals could agitate to replace him or at least step up their opposition to his reforms.
"I think the Democrats' chance [of winning] is slim but they do have a chance - 20 per cent or less," said Jun Iio, a professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.
Democrat leader Kan hopes to convince voters that the LDP's tight ties with vested interests make the party incapable of carrying out real change.- (Reuters)