The postman knocks

IN JAPANESE society, complains Hiroyuki Arai, “if you go against something you get a negative image.” It sounds an innocuous claim: who could deny that Japan is a land of conformity? But Mr Arai is no ordinary observer of Japanese culture. He is a member of the upper house, hails from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and is a fierce critic of Junichiro Koizumi's drive to privatise Japan Post, along with its ¥331 trillion ($2.9 trillion) in bank and insurance assets. Mr Koizumi, the prime minister, desperately wants to push this reform through the upper house this summer, after winning in the lower house by only five votes earlier this month. LDP anti-reformists such as Mr Arai are calling Mr Koizumi a bully who must be stopped.