HONOLULU -- No one predicted the size of Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro's election victory last weekend. The landslide win has transformed the landscape of Japanese politics.

Oddly, the new picture looks a lot like the old Japan: domination by a single party -- the familiar Liberal Democratic Party (LPD) -- without a credible opposition. The election itself was strangely familiar, too, in that it was driven by personalities -- at least the prime minister's -- rather than by any serious discussion of policies. The result is not likely to be great change.

However, with Koizumi remaining as prime minister, the ship of state will maintain its present course. Things will get interesting in a year, when the time comes to pick a successor -- if the prime minister keeps his oft-repeated promise to step down when his term is up.