A BIG WIN FOR KOIZUMI IN JAPAN, which is a win for the Bush Administration, too:

His rise to power included the unusual promise to “destroy” the party that had made him its president so it could be rebuilt from the ground up.

His structural reforms, including capping government spending and cleaning up the country’s debt-laden banks, have been only partially successful.

Even so, he remains one of the most popular prime ministers Japan has ever had, consistently receiving 50 percent or higher support in public opinion polls.

While pursuing reform at home, Koizumi is not likely to change his approach in foreign matters.

A strong backer of U.S. policy in Afghanistan and Iraq, he has dispatched non-combat troops to both areas. He also supports amending Japan’s pacifist constitution to give the military more freedom to act overseas, although he said late Sunday he would not pursue that goal in his final year as prime minister.

Japan also is one of the United States’ negotiating partners in the effort to disarm North Korea of its nuclear weapons.

Japan needs restructuring, and I hope that Koizumi can do it.

UPDATE: Roger Simon — fresh back from Japan — observes: “What is surprising, although mildly, is that the most charismatic – and in many ways progressive – politician on the world stage today is Japanese.”

Daniel Drezner: “I choose to credit the lipstick ninjas.”