MEET THE PANEL Name: Tameyuki Takata Age: 61 Lives: Maniwa-shi Works: Surgeon Voted: Democratic Party of Japan

Theatre politics, one-phrase politics, Koizumi magic, whatever you may call it - this was an unusual election.

It was totally Koizumi's game. The opposition parties couldn't escape from his spell.

Throughout this election, he has chanted "postal reform" like a Buddhist monk chanting a mantra.

It was simple and ostensibly easy to understand.

But I feel it was misguided and short-sighted.

Media helped his campaign a lot. They covered the sensational female "assassins" fielded against the opponents of the postal reform bill. And those madonnas won big!

The fact that more women have been elected could be the one good point of this election. I hope that they live up to expectations.

People were naturally more concerned about issues close to their daily lives. But I remain concerned about international affairs such as the friction that has been created with China and Korea through Koizumi's repeated visits to the Yasukuni shrine.

Many Japanese think that the Iraq war was a mistake. But this was put on the back burner in this election.

What about our troubled pension system? What should we do with the huge national debt? All of those voices were drowned out by Koizumi's single issue campaign.

His simplicity and audacity prevailed.