Challenge: Koizumi stays PM

IIRC, the LDP does not allow its leaders to serve more than five years. WI this hadn't happened and Koizumi remained PM? Effects on Japan?
 
Japans defence policy emphasises section 6 of the constitution instead of section 5. Section 5 is the self defence of the home islands themselves, section 6 is defending out to 1000km from Japanese territory which takes in a lot of important parts of east Asia.
 
A more stable Japanese political scene over the past few years would have endured. Say what you like about him, Koizumi had charisma! That is the key area in which his successors have fallen flat, I think we can safely say that the credit crunch (if it did happen as in OTL) would almost certainly be his downfall as an economic liberal such as him would be opposed by the conservative wing of the Liberal Democratic Party with regards to people such as Aso.

However, if his resignation came around mid-2008, his successor as PM (possibly Aso if the conservatives won the leadership election) would perhaps be minded to call an election then and there rather than wait until mid-2009 as happened in real life. Such an election would perhaps lead to a sharply reduced majority for the LDP, but nothing on the scale of the landslide defeat they got two months ago.
 
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