Japanese PM wins election landslide

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's long-ruling party won a stunning landslide victory in yesterday's general election, giving the US ally a broad mandate to press on with market-friendly reforms.

The Liberal Democratic Party was assured of winning 296 seats in the 480-seat chamber, Kyodo news agency said, the first time it had won a majority on its own in 15 years.

The LDP and its coalition partner, the New Komeito party, grabbed a total of 327 seats, up from 283 previously, allowing them to dominate the powerful lower chamber with a majority on all committees and override the upper house if need be.

The result was a striking victory for Mr Koizumi, a media-savvy maverick who had gambled his career in a populist appeal to voters to back his plan to privatise Japan's postal system, a financial services giant that includes a postal savings bank and insurance business with a combined $3 trillion in assets.

The 63-year-old Mr Koizumi, a telegenic veteran with a knack for punchy slogans but a mixed record on implementing change, called the election after LDP lawmakers helped the opposition defeat bills to privatise Japan Post in the upper house.

"I have advocated postal reform for many years. The Parliament said it was an absurd argument. The people have said it was the right thing," Mr Koizumi, looking relaxed in a grey and white opened-necked shirt, told reporters at LDP headquarters.

His decision to strip 37 LDP rebels of party backing and send what media called "assassin" candidates to take on the "traitors" created a buzz in the normally apathetic electorate, making the poll as much a referendum on Mr Koizumi himself as on his policies.

"In the past, it seemed most things were down in backroom deals. That attitude seems to be changing," said Tokyo office worker Norihiro Ishihara, 28. "Koizumi is easy to understand. It's not that I like Koizumi, it's just that I like his style."