A Hotfoot for Japanese Politics? : Reformer Ozawa, with the prime minister’s job in mind, plots an attack on the status quo

Japan’s glacial pace of political reform may be in for some much needed heat and acceleration as Ichiro Ozawa emerges from shadowy back rooms to take the leadership of the main opposition party.

The fabled political strategist is out to implement his reformist 27-point “new Japan” policy, which includes faster deregulation of the economy and shifting power from government bureaucrats to elected officials. Both of these changes would be welcomed by foreign governments and investors.

Talk of change in Japan is nothing new. But despite five prime ministers in six years, Tokyo is muddling through its most daunting economic, social and political challenges since the end of World War II.

Ozawa has been one of the few mainstream politicians with new ideas. So far, he has made some interesting differences, mostly behind the scenes. After bolting the long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party, he engineered the LDP’s stunning fall from power in 1993. But a year later, Ozawa’s own coalition was ousted by a resurgent LDP and two other parties. He helped to create the New Frontier Party last year, but the old kingmaker dropped from public view soon afterward to plot campaign strategies for the coming general elections.

Elections for the lower house of Parliament--a vote that effectively will choose the nation’s prime minister--do not have to be called until June 1997, but Ozawa is expected to press current Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama to dissolve the lower chamber and call a snap election.

Ozawa has his eye on the prime minister’s seat. His main opponent for now is the outspoken Ryutaro Hashimoto, head of the LDP and Japan’s trade minister, who is best known in the United States for his tough bargaining with Trade Representative Mickey Kantor during automobile trade talks.

But Ozawa is the man to watch, especially as he gathers support from business and government leaders. His blunt and uncompromising manner will bring an assertive and combative tone to the consensual style of Japanese politics.

Is Ozawa the man of vision that Tokyo has been desperately seeking? Or is he simply the politician of the day? Ozawa once symbolized the old-money politics of the LDP. Today he is the reincarnated symbol of change. Some question how deep and real his transformation is. Put it this way: The ever-so-slow political revolution may get revved up in the new year.