Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi dissolved the Lower House on Monday after a rebellion within his Liberal Democratic Party in the Upper House killed the postal privatization bills, the centerpiece of his reform agenda. Despite his prompt countermove, Mr. Koizumi's overall political agenda has suffered a big blow.

For Mr. Koizumi, who was elected LDP president and has led the party to electoral victories with a policy agenda of structural reforms centering on the postal reform, Monday's rejection of his postal reform bills apparently was tantamount to a rejection of his public pledge.

The decisive division created by the handling of the postal bills raises a strong possibility that the LDP may be split in the coming snap elections. If this development takes place, the LDP's fortunes will be doomed. There is also a possibility that the LDP will lose its coalition partner, New Komeito, whose party's secretary general, Mr. Tetsuo Fuyushiba, has said that the party might align itself with the Democratic Party of Japan if the LDP lost in the next elections.