The year 2006 will mark a watershed for Japanese politics inasmuch as Junichiro Koizumi, who has ruled Japan for five years as one of the longest-serving prime ministers in the postwar era, insists that he will step down when his term as president of the governing Liberal Democratic Party expires.
Postal reform and other structural reforms, on which Koizumi staked his political life, are now on track. He has tamed strong intraparty resistance to his "top-down" management style.
In September, he invoked his power as prime minister to call a snap election for the Lower House, and led the LDP to an overwhelming victory. (The governing coalition now controls more than two-thirds of the Lower House seats.) In the process, he transformed old-style LDP politics, which had been dominated by factionalism and special interests.