In Sunday's Lower House by-elections, which had been billed as a prelude to July's Upper House election, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party won all three seats at stake. Thus the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, having suffered defeat, will need to rethink its campaign strategy if it is to succeed in July balloting.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, now in his fourth year in office, appears more confident of his ability to run his administration. Regarding Iraq, currently the biggest item on his diplomatic agenda, he is determined stay the course, rejecting any demand for a troop pullout. In the Diet, meanwhile, the LDP will likely push harder to get key bills, including pension- reform measures, through the current regular session, which ends in mid-June.

The LDP triumph is no cause for complacency. The turnout was a record low in all three districts despite the fact that the elections were contested over hot-button issues such as Iraq, pension reform and privatization. In Saitama's No. 8 district, only 35 percent of eligible voters turned out, a drop of nearly 20 percent from November's general election. In the other two constituencies, Hiroshima's No. 5 and Kagoshima's No. 5, turnout fell about 10 percent to approximately 55 percent. Part of the reason for this may be that voters' attention was easily distracted in the aftermath of the November election.