Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi vowed yesterday to purge opponents of his reforms before next month's polls despite warnings he could cause his party to implode and usher in a historic opposition victory.
Furious after 30 members of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) party shot down his plans for post office privatization, Koizumi called Sept. 11 elections two years ahead of schedule and vowed those who voted against it would be barred from the ticket.
The main opposition Democratic Party was quick to call Koizumi obsessed with postal reform, an issue that has not resonated with voters, and said it would oust him, campaining on the slogan: "There Are More Important Things."
PHOTO: AP
"I will crush the old LDP and create a new one. I will not join hands with the old LDP," the Yomiuri Shimbun quoted him telling leaders from the Liberal Democratic Party after Monday's vote.
"I will be merciless. I will decide [candidates] depending only on whether they are against or for the plan to privatize the postal system," the Mainichi Shimbun paper quoted him saying.
Ever since he was postal minister in 1992, Koizumi has insisted that breaking up the massive bulk of Japan Post, which is also effectively the world's biggest financial institution, was essential for Japan's future.
Koizumi believes that breaking it into four entities, and separating out the bank, would give the private sector reason to compete and help Japan out of more than a decade of zero to little growth.
But poll after poll has shown the Japanese public is little interested in the issue, and the opposition said it would seize the historic opportunity to topple the LDP, which has ruled Japan virtually non-stop since 1955.
"It is clearly wrong to make the postal reforms the sole issue of elections," said main opposition leader Katsuya Okada, a 52-year-old former civil servant.
"It has been my promise to topple the government in the next election. As the schedule has been advanced, I will seize this opportunity," Okada told Fuji television.
To some here, Koizumi's call for early elections is seen in part as a way to punish the LDP deputies who sank the postal measure, and there were concerns that the 63-year-old premier was headed for political disaster.
Former trade minister Takeo Hiranuma, an LDP member who came out against the post office plan, said it was possible Koizumi's opponents would bolt the party.
More than half of Japanese business leaders believe early elections next month and possible political disarray could affect the economy which is finally coming out of a long slump, a poll showed yesterday.
"The rejection of the [postal] bills made it clear that the reform drive towards `a small government' has come to a dead end," said Kakutaro Kitashiro, chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives or Keizai Doyukai.
Speaking yesterday in Nagasaki where he marked the 60th anniversary of the dropping of the US atomic bomb, Koizumi stressed he considered the snap polls a verdict on his postal plans.
"In this election, we will ask the public whether they agree or oppose postal privatization. I believe many people will make a decision to support the measure," he said.
But opposition leader Okada said the issues in the election should be how to overhaul the rapidly aging nation's pension and tax systems, as well as sour relations with China and South Korea, triggered in part by Koizumi's insistence on visiting a controversial war shrine.
"I understand he does not want to make this an issue. But he himself made this an issue," said Okada, who has pledged not to go to the Yasukuni shrine if he becomes premier.
The Yomiuri Shimbun said Koizumi's call for a new election was "difficult to comprehend" with so much stacked against him.
"If those who do not obtain LDP tickets choose to launch a new party, the conservative camp will be divided into two groups. If this happens, the LDP -- which is to mark its 50th anniversary in November -- will encounter the worst moment since its foundation," the Yomiuri said.
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