Former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone predicted on a television program aired Sunday morning that the administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will last about five years.
"If (the administration) tries hard and achieves goals to some extent, it will last for about five years. And we must make it continue," Nakasone said on a Fuji TV program. Nakasone himself served as prime minister for nearly five years, from November 1982 through November 1987.
As for political realignment, Nakasone said he expects Koizumi to play a leading role in the process. "I want Mr. Koizumi to build a basic course resolving the amendments of the Constitution and the Fundamental Law of Education," he said. He also said he wants Koizumi to finish some political business left over since World War II.
Nakasone predicted a wide-ranging coalition of those sharing ideas will be launched with multipartisan policies and with cooperation from opposition parties. But he said it is uncertain when such an alignment will occur.
Nakasone said the ruling Liberal Democratic Party should carry out another presidential election in September to solidify Koizumi's political base ahead the expected political alignment. He said that preliminary elections should be held with each party member allowed only one vote.
"Then, after being re-endorsed, (Koizumi) will have gained the powers to carry out big projects from now. He is allowed to have such ambition," he said.
On April 24, Koizumi won a landslide victory in an LDP presidential election that had originally been scheduled for September.