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Koizumi named Japanese Prime Minister
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Junichiro Koizumi was elected prime minister of Japan on Thursday, capping a stunning sweep to power on public disgust with his predecessor's scandals, gaffes and failure to pull the nation out of its deep economic doldrums.
Koizumi was elected in a vote by the lower house of Japan's bicameral Parliament. The less powerful upper house also began voting on Thursday, but under the constitution its vote was largely ceremonial.
Koizumi swept to power on impassioned promises to reform the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party and pull Japan out of its decade-long economic slump.
Koizumi's pleas for change clearly won a popular mandate.
Koizumi, Japan's ninth premier in just 10 years, swept virtually all of the primaries among the party's rank-and-file, where a strong sense of crisis has been building.
Holding to his campaign vows, Koizumi carried out a shake-up of the party's top posts on Wednesday, replacing the old guard with three allies.
But his fiery anti-status-quo rhetoric has alienated some of the party's leaders, whose support he will need if he is to make good on his promises, which include a plan to privatize Japan's huge postal savings system.
Offering savings accounts to customers, Japan's post office in effect doubles as the world's largest bank. Koizumi has called the system inefficient, but it is a source of political support for the ruling party and few in the party leadership want it changed.
Koizumi's ability to balance such conflicting interests was seen as his biggest challenge in the days ahead, and attention was already focusing on who he would name to his Cabinet.
Mori's Cabinet resigned en masse on Thursday, clearing the way for a new government.
Koizumi has advocated in general terms an expansion of the role of Japan's military, and said he supports official visits to a shrine where Japan's war dead — including World War II criminals — are worshipped. Such visits in the past have generated outrage in China and Korea, which bore the brunt of Japan's militarist expansion. (SD-Agencies)
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