Miyazawa May Give Japan Policy New Sophistication : Politics: Experienced in government and fluent in English, he is favored to succeed Kaifu as prime minister.

Kiichi Miyazawa, who won key assurances Friday that he will become this nation’s next prime minister, is expected to add a new sophistication and leadership to Japan’s economic and diplomatic policy-making.

With a record of nearly half a century in government and politics, Miyazawa emphasized in recent months and again Friday that he believes Japan must play an international role to the maximum permitted by its war-renouncing constitution.

Miyazawa, 72, who has served as minister of international trade and industry, foreign minister, finance minister, chief Cabinet secretary and director of the Economic Planning Agency, will probably replace outgoing Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu, who announced that he will not seek another term when his expires Oct. 30.

Offering a sense of his thinking on critical issues facing Japan, Miyazawa told reporters Friday that he supports Japanese aid to the Soviet Union, that he is not overly concerned about U.S. criticism of his country and that he envisions a vigorous but peaceful role for Tokyo on global economic and security matters.

In the past, Miyazawa has been bitterly critical of the Soviet Union. At one stage, he pointedly returned invitations to receptions marking the anniversary of the Soviet revolution by replying, “I do not celebrate events such as revolutions.”

But speaking at a press conference Friday at the Japan National Press Club, he supported Japan’s assisting Moscow in its current troubles, saying, “For the Soviet Union no longer to be a threat is more desirable than anything.”

Miyazawa--who is fluent in English and has been known for his generally amicable relations with Americans, dating to his time as a liaison officer with U.S. Occupation authorities after World War II--appeared unruffled about criticism of Japan by the United States or other Western allies.

“Japan and the United States trust each other, and Japan is no longer such a weak nation economically that it trembles whenever America says something to it,” he said. “Issues should be discussed frankly and openly.”

Miyazawa has taken that tack himself.

As finance minister under former prime ministers Yasuhiro Nakasone and Noboru Takeshita, he won high marks from Japanese businessmen for working with then-Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III to manage exchange rates and international finance issues. They cooperated so closely that analysts began to describe the Group of Seven--the financial leaders of the seven major industrialized democracies--as a “Group of Two.”

But Miyazawa, one of the few remaining Japanese leaders who remembers the generous policies that the United States carried out toward a defeated enemy, has been known to rebuff Washington. As minister of international trade and industry in 1970-71, he refused to bow to demands by the Richard M. Nixon Administration for curbs on textile exports to the United States.

He also has criticized Europeans for taking long summer vacations, comparing them to “Kyoto candy-makers,” the merchants in the former capital of Japan who fixed a monthly sales goal and, when it was reached, shut their shops for the rest of the month.

And referring to the United States’ inability to solve many of its own economic problems while still criticizing other nations, especially Japan, for their policies and practices, Miyazawa has accused the United States of being “indifferent to its unseemly appearance.”

As for how the world regards his nation, Miyazawa has made it clear that he thinks Japan must play an active, visible role.

He said, for example, that he would push Parliament to enact “as quickly as possible” bills authorizing sending Japanese Self-Defense Forces abroad for U.N. peace-keeping missions and for disaster relief.

Both bills were an outgrowth of Japan’s failure, under Kaifu, to dispatch any personnel to the Mideast during the Gulf War. Only after the fighting had ended did Kaifu’s government send five minesweepers to the region.

But Miyazawa emphasized that Japan’s military will not participate in any overseas activity involving “killing and wounding,” which he said is prohibited by Japan’s constitution. “Japan must make clear what it cannot do (constitutionally), but it must carry out what it can do to the full extent of what is permitted,” he said.

He said he supports full debate of Japan’s war-renouncing constitution, adding, however, that, “as a person who remembers the war (World War II), I ask only that no step be taken (that would lead) to a repetition of the same mistake again.”

On economic issues, over which his country’s policies now have such dramatic influence, Miyazawa, an economics expert, has taken these positions:

- He has urged the Bank of Japan to lower interest rates to resuscitate Japan’s decelerating economy, he said, noting, “Japan must maintain healthy economic growth. Japan cannot make international contributions unless its economy is moving forward.”

- Unlike Kaifu, who promised only to “bring to a successful conclusion” the exhaustive Uruguay Round of trade talks, Miyazawa has publicly advocated a gradual opening to imports of Japan’s highly political rice market. He said he would push political reforms that Kaifu launched but said the ruling and opposition parties should get a year to reach a common stand on reforms.

- In July, in the midst of widening stock scandals, he called for the establishment of an independent regulatory body, separate from the Finance Ministry, to oversee Japan’s securities business and the stock market.

Miyazawa is expected to play a far more active role in managing his nation’s economy than did Kaifu, who left decisions to his bureaucrats, analysts said.

“The world again has hopes for an experienced Japanese leader to deal with tough issues like aid to the Soviet Union and East European economies, Japan’s growing trade frictions, and restoring confidence in the Japanese financial system,” New Japan Securities Co. said in an analysis.

Miyazawa commands great respect and strong support in Japan’s business world, but he can expect to face major problems within his party. A graduate of the elite Tokyo Imperial University who joined the prestigious Finance Ministry in 1942, Miyazawa has, for example, been criticized for wearing his intelligence on his sleeve.

He has been faulted for disdaining back-room maneuvering and failing to attend to the needs of politicians in the faction he inherited from former Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki. Ruling party politicians resent his fluency in English and have publicly criticized him for spending time reading foreign newspapers and magazines.

Although the recommendation of Shin Kanemaru promises to propel him into Japan’s top office, Miyazawa’s strained personal relationship with the 77-year-old kingmaker of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party is well-known.

Miyazawa also has suffered setbacks that appeared to result from bad judgment. He once found himself wrestling for his life with an assailant after he went unquestioningly to a hotel room for what he was told would be a meeting with the leader of one of Japan’s major religious sects.

And as finance minister in the midst of the Recruit stocks-for-favors scandals, he was forced to resign after changing his story three times about how a secretary got involved with the job-placement and information industry firm.

Miyazawa on Friday won a de facto victory in the quest for the premiership when Kanemaru told the party’s largest faction--105 members of Parliament who pledge loyalty to Takeshita--that he “would be happy if (the faction) supports Kiichi Miyazawa.”

Although unenthusiastic applause came from the Takeshita faction, there were no objections to Kanemaru’s laconic statement and the faction declared his recommendation approved unanimously. Soon afterward, Toshio Komoto, head of a tiny 31-member faction to which Kaifu belongs, announced that his group also would support Miyazawa.

With the 82 members of Miyazawa’s own faction, the three factions control 218, or 88%, of the 249 votes needed for a majority, if an election is held to pick a new party leader. The new leader then becomes prime minister because the Liberal Democrats control the lower house of Parliament that elects Japan’s top leader.

Mutsuki Kato, chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s policy board, also joined the bandwagon, saying he would act in accord with the Takeshita faction’s decision despite his membership in the faction of Hiroshi Mitsuzuka, 64, an opponent of Miyazawa.

Mitsuzuka and the third candidate, Michio Watanabe, 68, insisted that they would stay in the race, filing candidacy papers Oct. 19, and forcing an election for the party presidency Oct. 27. A special session of Parliament will called in early November to elect the winner as prime minister.

Attention within the ruling party already was reported switching to maneuvering over party posts and Miyazawa’s Cabinet appointments.