Japan PM to call election after postal defeat

Japan PM to call election after postal defeat:

"Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will call an election for September 11, his coalition partner said on Monday after parliament's upper house rejected bills to privatise the postal system -- the core of Koizumi's reforms."

This might lead to a change of government, or it might not, as the current government has ruled for most of the time since the modern Japanese consititution was created by the Americans after World War 2.

The prime minister's bitterly divided Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed for most of the past half century, is also in danger of losing at the polls for the powerful lower house, politicians and analysts say, reported Reuters

And people think politics is boring in the UK. They seem to be really worked up about their postal system with one member of the Japanese lower house of parliment comparing Koizumi's reforms to suicide bombing. Strong stuff.