Koizumi has dissolved the Japanese Diet in response to rejection of postal services commercialization bill
Monday, August 8, 2005
The House of Councillors, the upper house of the Diet of Japan, voted on the controversial bill that would have privatized the Japanese Postal Service at around 1 p.m. (JST, UTC +8) on Monday, August 8. The bill was rejected by a slim margin – 108 for, 125 against, one abstention and two intentional absences – after a rebellion within the ruling Liberal Democractic Party (LDP).
The Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, had promised that the privatization of the Postal Service, which is also Japan's largest savings bank, would "revitalize" the Japanese economy. He has also stated that the commercialization of the Postal Services was at the core of his policies, and threatened to dissolve the houses and call for an immediate election in case of a defeat.
As promised, the rejection led to an immediate call of the cabinet ministers at 3pm to dissolve the House of Representatives. For the dissolution to be valid all cabinet ministers must jointly sign an edict issued in the name of the Emperor. Cabinet minister Shimamura Yoshinobu, the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, refused to sign the edict, and resigned. The dissolution was officially announced by Chair Kono at the Diet later in the evening.
The election is reported to be held on September 11.
Sources
- 「郵政法案:参院本会議で採決へ 法案成立は極めて困難に」。毎日新聞社、August 8, 2005。
- 「郵政法案:参議院本会議で否決、総選挙の可能性強まる」。毎日新聞社、August 8, 2005。
- 「衆院解散、総選挙へ 自民分裂選挙に突入」。河北新報社、August 8, 2005。
- 「小泉首相、解散・総選挙を明言」。JNN、August 8, 2005。
- 「衆院選:衆院解散を閣議決定 9月11日投票の見通し」。毎日新聞、2005年8月8日。
- 「郵政法案否決 衆議院解散」。NHK Online、August 8, 2005。
- BBC News. "Japanese PM calls snap election" — BBC News, August 8, 2005
The text of this article has been released into the public domain. In the event that this is not legally possible, this article may be used for any purpose, without any condition, unless such conditions are required by law. This applies worldwide. Copyright terms on images, however, may vary, so please check individual image pages prior to duplication. Please note that this only applies to Wikinews content created prior to September 25, 2005. All content created after that date is released under a Creative Commons license which is mentioned at the bottom of each article. This is currently the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License. |