|
|
|
AP photo
|
Liberal Democratic Party President Junichiro Koizumi, left, accompanied by his rival and former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, in Tokyo Tuesday, April 24, 2001.
|
|
By Cindy Lee
STAFF WRITER
On April 26, Japan began a new era of politics as Yoshiro Mori stepped down as Prime Minister and former health minister Junichiro Koizumi stepped up. Mori resigned after certain mistakes left him highly unpopular with the public. Mori endured a year of criticism before leaving office with only a seven percent approval rating.
In this year’s election, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDC) decided to allow local chapters to participate in the vote for a party president and Prime Minister. Allowing local politicians to vote aided the victory of radical politician Junichiro Koizumi. Koizumi won 123 out of the possible 147 primary votes last week. In the parliamentary vote Tuesday, Koizumi won 298 out of 487 votes. His main opponent, Ryutaro Hashimoto, received 155 votes.
Hashimoto, a former Prime Minister and state minister for administrative reform, was chosen as a candidate by the Party’s elder leaders. After four decades of control by the LDC, this is the first time that the candidate chosen by the party’s elders has lost the presidential race.
Hashimoto’s loss underlined public rejection of the LDC as well as the dissatisfaction with the current government’s inability to solve Japan’s lingering economic and social crises.
Koizumi, 59, is a divorced father of two sons. He clashes with other Party politicians with his wave-like hairstyle, his love of Japanese rock music and his intolerance for drinking. Most Japanese politicians wear a slicked back hairstyle, enjoy karaoke and have nightly drinking habits. He is most popular among women and young people.
Koizumi’s first job in office is to select a new cabinet. After his win, Koizumi vowed to fill the cabinet with more women, young people and politicians outside of those supported by the Party’s core group.
Koizumi also promised to work on Japan’s current economic problem. He promises to privatize the country’s postal services, to control deficit spending and to limit the Japanese bond debt from public works projects. He also said that he would make these changes without a tax increase. In addition, Koizumi wants to end the controlling ways of the LDC that is estranged from the common public and mostly ruled by a faction of elders.
Koizumi will have a hard time making these changes without the cooperation of the faction of elders that he ran against. However, if he does succeed, he will bring an end to the old way of politics used in Japan for the last 40 years.
|
