Japans Koizumi faces stiff competition (Another regime change coming?

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/07/10/japan.election/index.html

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Japanese lawmakers are taking to the streets before Sunday's parliamentary elections as Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi prepares to face stiff competition at the polls.

His Liberal Democratic Party needs to win 51 seats in the Upper House elections to consolidate power.

If not, he faces a revolt from within his own party.

Koizumi was voted in 3 years ago on a wave of popularity with a whopping 80 percent approval rating.

Now he is struggling and his ratings have plunged to just 40 percent after he decided to keep Japanese troops in Iraq and pushed through an unpopular bill to reform the country's pension system.

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[Zech Marquis]

1. hard to judeg this one

just tlaking to Mrs Zech arlier this morning, there's not alot of love left for Koizumi..however, there's no Japanese version of Kerry nor Edwards, not even a Dean who has enough power to shake things up. So the Misses to be isn't exactly eager to vote tomorrow, but she will :-)

[BillZBubb]

2. Wow, it would be great if that phony got booted!

I won't hold my breath though, Japan is still pretty much a one-party state.