Word: aso
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Fukuda's likely successor is Taro Aso, the popular former Minister of Foreign Affairs. The hope is that Aso can not only rekindle the office's appeal but, much more importantly, help break gridlock in parliament, where the LDP heads a coalition in the lower house of the Japanese Diet. Fukuda reshuffled his Cabinet last month to install Aso in the No. 2 spot as the secretary general of Liberal Democratic Party...
Fukuda has not said when his resignation takes effect. But if the LDP elects Aso as president, the expectation is that the much-more appealing leadership could restore confidence in the party and help it win the general elections that needs to take place before Sept. 2009. Aso is a political golden boy, in spite of his 67 years, who is known for his love of manga or Japanese-style comic books. Some consider him destined for the top office, given his array of personal ties to former prime ministers and to the Imperial family itself (His brother...
...between the two candidates on many important issues, including the handling of over 50 million lost pension records, rural economic stagnation and tax reforms. Abe's failure to address these problems cost his party control of Japan's upper house, and yet, like their fallen predecessor, both Fukuda and Aso preferred to highlight their foreign policy differences - Fukuda called for open talks with Japan's neighbors, while the hawkish Aso took a conservative stance on the Yasukuni war shrine, a sore point in Asian relations. Both favored postponing a general election until next spring; both have also inherited...
...lose control of the upper house of parliament in July. Abe, who on Saturday cast his absentee ballot from the Tokyo hospital bed that he has been confined to since his resignation speech, sent a message to be read after the election: "I apologize to party general secretary [Aso] and all LDP lawmakers, party members and especially the Japanese public for causing a political vacuum." Aso's closeness to Abe, most analysts say, is what cost him his third bid for prime minister. The party instead looked to Fukuda, the long-serving speaker of Junichiro Koizumi's colorful cabinet...
...Aso's campaign pegged the election as a battle between the old and the new LDP; the party decided that a return to the old faction-driven politics of compromise was what it needed. Whether the old ways can provide solutions to Japan's problems, though, remains to be seen; with Fukuda still unclear on how he intends to solve Japan's domestic economic issues, the LDP has until next spring's general elections to prove it can answer to the country's needs...