Word: fukuda
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Both former prime ministers Takeo Fukuda and Takeo Miki have vilified Tanaka and the money politics he stands for, and they have extended their hatred to Ohira. Fukuda and Miki blame the Ohira-Tanaka alliance for depriving them of the premiership on several occasions. Miki also campaigns on a clean government plank, and has urged reforming the system of election for party president to estinguish the potential for bribery that Tanaka exploited so successfully. Tanaka in turn despises Miki as the man who jailed him in 1974 and fought to prosecute all offenders in the Lockheed case...
THESE rivalries erupted in a spectacular display of pettiness, absurdity and irresponsibility during the party elections in the Diet to determine the new prime minister. At one point, the Fukuda camp set up a blockade to prevent Ohira supporters from entering the Diet. Burly Ohira guards smashed the barrier, screaming obscenities into whirring television cameras. Ohira himself blocked Diet votes on the premiership three times, holding out to retain his power while the Diet remained paralyzed. After futile attempts at compromise with Fukuda, Ohira retained his seat by a mere 17 votes in the first runoff premier election in Japan...
...Although Fukuda had also insisted on the appointment, which he hoped would embarass Ohira, Tanaka had other ideas, as Kuraishi soon made clear. Immediately after his appointment, Kuraishi shocked the nation by stating that the suspects were close, friends of his and he hoped they would be cleared. the prime minister is struggling to patch his party together, but still has no takers...
When the Diet finally reassembled last week, it faced a situation unprecedented in Japan's 33-year postwar parliamentary history: two candidates from the same party, Ohira and Fukuda, vying for the premiership. Elected on the second ballot by a 17-vote margin, Ohira owed his victory to the support of a conservative breakaway party, the New Liberal Club. The win did little to enhance Ohira's stature, either in the Diet or in his own party. Fumed one L.D.P. member: "At first, I didn't think he should resign, but later I decided he should...
...portfolios; 15 of his 20 ministers are in their first Cabinet jobs. He has also agreed to give some key party positions, including the post of secretary-general, to members of rival factions. Despite these fence-mending efforts, the party's wounds are far from healed. Vowed Fukuda: "The first round is over, but the second has just begun...