|
 TOKYO, Aug. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Japanese Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi dissolved the lower house immediately after the
postal reform bills advocated by him failed to clear the upper house on Monday.
The premier has said he intended to have the general
election held on Sept. 11. The upper house is not subject to dissolution.
The bills were voted down in the upper house 125
against 108 asKoizumi's drive had divided his ruling Liberal Democratic Party
(LDP) so heavily that many party members joined the opposition parties to stop
the passage of the legislation.
A combined 30 LDP upper house members voted against
postal bills or abstained, well exceeding the 18 needed to kill the bills.
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister
Yoshinobu Shimamura resigned to express his opposition to the dissolution.
However, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda told a press conference after a
cabinet meeting that Shimamura has been dismissed from his post.
Shimamura said some other ministers also voiced
opposition to the lower house dissolution during the cabinet meeting, but
Hosodarejected the remarks, saying the decision was approved by all cabinet
ministers but Shimamura.
Also sacked was Parliamentary Defense Secretary
Takeaki Kashimura.
 Privatizing Japan's postal services has been
one of Koizumi's core policies. Under the plan, the mammoth body with some
270,000 employees will be split into four units to be run under a holding
company from April 2007, and become fully privatized entities in 10 years. He
intends to spin off these public servants to relieve the government of financial
burden.
However, his ambition has met vehement resistance,
not only from the opposition parties, but also from his own ruling Liberal
Democratic Party.
The postal service system is one of the major
supporting groupsfor the party, thus has strong clout there.
They are worried that the privatization would deprive
them of stable payments and job posts. Opponents also argued that the
privatization could result in the closure of the bulk of post offices,
particularly in rural, depopulated areas where many LDP supporters reside.
The major opposition Domestic Party of Japan is
opposed to the government-proposed privatization on the grounds that it might
result in the creation of a massive government-affiliated conglomerate offering
postal, financial, distribution and retail services that would weigh heavily on
their respective private-sector competitors.
 In order to gain over party
opponents, Koizumi even threatened to dismiss the lower house and call a snap
general election. In such case, the ruling party could encounter a tough war as
the DPJhad demonstrated a rapid growth in political strength in the previous
lower house election in 2003 and the upper house electionlast year.
None of the two sides compromised. Opponents within
the LDP rejected last-ditch lobbies from Koizumi's supporters after the bills
cleared the lower house in July with a narrow margin of fivevotes. Koizumi,
meanwhile, adamantly insisted on the dissolution despite some party
heavyweights, including former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, who is a party
faction leader and Koizumi's major backer.
The determined premier said that he would pursue the
postal reform to the end, even if at the cost of life.
After learning the bills have been rejected, Koizumi
reportedlysaid that the LDP would not throw back behind on rebels in the
upcoming general election, and vowed to destroy the old LDP to give it a new
life.
The DPJ showed confidence for a good result in the
lower house election. Party leader Katsuya Okada vowed that his party would end
ruling of the LDP for over 50 years.
New Komeito party leader Takenori Kanzaki said that
his party will continue cooperation with the LDP, but admitted that it wouldbe
difficult to win in the election. Enditem | 
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