From the
Land of the Rising Sun:
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will call a snap election, public broadcaster NHK said on Monday after parliament's upper house rejected bills to privatize the postal system -- the core of his reform agenda.
Political analysts have said Koizumi's divided ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has ruled for most of the past half century, was in danger of losing the election for parliament's powerful lower house.
The bills were rejected in the upper house by a vote of 125 to 108. Media said some 20 LDP members had voted against the legislation.
A brief discussion of the situation in extended text.
The Japanese postal system doesn't just deliver the mail; it also is the largest bank and insurance provider in Japan. Also, the patronage jobs from the post office are used as local organizers for the ruling LDP, which is apparently a conservative party.
This plan was to completely privatize the postal system, including the mail delivery sections as well as the banking and insurance businesses. The plan was not popular even among PM Koizumi's own party, but he managed to push it through the lower house. The upper house however, has rejected it this morning. Now, Koizumi is following on his threat to call elections, which have a real chance of dividing the LDP and bringing the opposition party to power for the second time since World War II.