Word: abe
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...former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi - a post he held for a record 1,259 days, a period unmatched by any other post World War II minister - Fukuda earned a reputation for calm competency that should appeal to a public and a party still shocked by the utter disintegration of Abe's administration. But it seems far less likely that Fukuda will be able to help the LDP at the ballot box. (Legislative elections aren't scheduled until 2009, but with the opposition empowered by its recent win, early polls seem inevitable.) Clever and even cutting in person, Fukuda was always...
...official day of campaigning for the presidency of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) - and at least temporarily, the prime ministership - should come Sept. 17, on keiro no hi, or "Respect for the Aged Day." Japan's political old guard, shunted aside under just-resigned Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is back with a vengeance, and the consensus pick to be the next leader of Japan is a 71-year-old veteran who was rejected last year in part because he was considered too elderly. Yasuo Fukuda, an LDP Diet member who'd disappeared into the background in recent years...
...wasn't supposed to be this way. In the immediate aftermath of Abe's sudden resignation on Sept. 12, it was Aso - the conservative, high profile ex-Foreign Minister - who had the inside track. A comic book-loving populist - his most recent book was titled Awesome Japan - Aso had finished second to Abe in last year's LDP presidential election, and generally scored well with the public. But like a radioactive bomb, Abe's departure was so disastrous that it contaminated anyone near him, particularly Aso, who reportedly knew of the Prime Minister's coming resignation days before...
With Aso seen as damaged goods, a consensus rapidly formed around Fukuda, a safe if dull choice who wouldn't hurt the LDP, as Abe, who led the party to an historic electoral defeat at the end of July, so clearly had. "This is a self-preservation move for the party," says Carol Gluck, a professor of Japanese history at Columbia University. "This is seen in the party as a safer choice for regrouping the LDP." Even Fukuda himself seemed to recognize that he was parachuting into a caretaker role. "Our party faces an emergency," he told LDP members gathered...
Once the dust clears, Abe's departure could also signal a return to the old Japan. Abe was elected less than a year ago, promising to centralize power in the Prime Minister's office--traditionally weak compared with those of other countries--and promote a more assertive Japan abroad. Instead, the influence has shifted back to behind-the-scenes power brokers, and the country appears to be retreating from the world stage. At this uncertain point, it seems Japan could go any way but forward...