Japan’s stamp of approval

TODAY THE EDITORIAL writers of America stand united on an issue of global significance: the need for Japanese postal reform. That was the main issue in parliamentary elections Sunday in which Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s Liberal Democratic Party won a two-thirds majority.

Now the question is whether Koizumi has a mandate to do more than privatize the post office (it is also the world’s largest bank and, as the New York Times notes, “the ruling party’s principal slush fund.”) The Times is hopeful but skeptical, noting Koizumi is “a committed reformer, but he will have to wage war against major elements of his party, which remains Japan’s principal bastion of status quo politics.” The Washington Post shares this sense of uncertainty, beginning by congratulating Koizumi for his “sheer gutsiness” and concluding that he may be too gutsy, especially in foreign policy. “It’s one thing for Mr. Koizumi to gamble flamboyantly in politics,” warns the Post. “It’s another to gamble with the uneasy balance in one of the world’s tensest regions.”

The Christian Science Monitor, meanwhile, admires “Koizumi’s audacious courage” and thinks the U.S. should, too. And the Wall Street Journal is practically giddy -- the word “privatization” tends to send its editorial writers into paroxysms of ecstasy -- and says that Koizumi has won a mandate almost Rovian in scope. “The unexpectedly large victory means that Japan’s voters have endorsed Mr. Koizumi’s policy mix of smaller government and an activist foreign policy,” the Journal says. Note to Prime Minister Koizumi: You may want to check to see how that formula has fared elsewhere.

Michael Newman