Japan Leader’s To-Do List
Incoming Japanese leader Junichiro Koizumi beat some long odds in defeating his party elders’ favorite candidate to become president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and thereby Japan’s next prime minister. He will now face much longer odds in trying to deliver on his promises of change and reform.
Koizumi’s resounding and surprising defeat of veteran politician Ryutaro Hashimoto for the LDP’s top post--the first time a favorite candidate of the party’s No. 1 faction was defeated--dealt a heavy blow to the old-boy politics of deal-making and catering to vested interests out of the public eye.
The LDP lost its majority in parliament last June and was facing an even bigger loss in elections this year. The party’s last handpicked president, current Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, turned out to be an unpopular, unimaginative leader beset by embarrassing gaffes and corruption and unable to deal with Japan’s economic woes.
Reform of the party itself, to break the power of its cliques and open its decision-making to all members, should be high on Koizumi’s agenda, and it won’t be easy. Koichi Kato, an LDP heavyweight disaffected with the party leadership, tried last fall by threatening to join with the opposition to bring down Mori’s government. But he beat a teary, last-minute retreat when the LDP old guard threatened him and his allies with expulsion.
Koizumi’s biggest challenge will be to revive the moribund economy. He will have to abandon the party’s preferred solution of mindless public works spending, which benefited constituencies in rural districts but did not perform for the economy. His first task will be to clean up banks laden with bad loans, which will not please the party bosses either and may result in further economic contraction. His Cabinet and party appointments later this week will give an early indication of how serious he is about keeping his campaign promises.
Koizumi will find that being a maverick in the ossified political world of Japan is easier than being a real reformer of the system.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
