Word: hashimoto
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TOKYO: Only hours after lawmakers elected Ryutaro Hashimoto prime minister, the agressive new Japanese leader was challenged for the top job by his chief rival, Ichiro Ozawa. Ozawa called for new elections to put Hashimoto's government to a popular vote. The vote could occur anytime between April and the end of 1997. "Hashimoto's Liberal Democratic Party is eager to avoid elections for the time being, but Ozawa is pressing hard for them," reports Tokyo bureau chief Edward Desmond. "There have been four governments since the 1993 elections, and the press and many politicians feel that it's time...
TOKYO: Three rival Japanese political parties have joined forces to ensure trade minister Ryutaro Hashimoto's victory as Japan's next prime minister in Thursday's parliamentary vote. United against New Frontier Party leader Ichiro Ozawa, the coalition is comprised of Hashimoto's conservative Liberal Democrats, the centrist Sakigake party, and the leftist Socialists. "What unifies these parties primarily is the desire to avoid scheduling elections," notes Tokyo bureau chief Edward Desmond. "The bargain was originally to let a Socialist be prime minister; now it's the LDP's turn." Hashimoto has gained popularity and a reputation as a tough...
...Clinton enthused, "This agreement is specific. It is measurable. It will achieve real, concrete results." In Tokyo, however, Hisashi Hosokawa, a hard-line miti official, insisted that "this agreement is a rejection of numerical targets" for Japanese purchases of American cars and parts. His boss, miti Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, may have strengthened his already bright chances for becoming Japan's next Prime Minister: he was being hailed as a hero precisely for having got Kantor to drop a U.S. demand for such targets...
...prospective increase of $9 billion in three years-or roughly 50%-in sales of U.S.-made auto parts to Japanese buyers. These are American estimates of what will happen if Japanese carmakers carry out pledges they supposedly made "voluntarily" and which are additionally subject to changing business conditions. But Hashimoto has made it clear that the Tokyo government does not guarantee that these-or any-targets will be reached. The pact provides for regular reviews to see how it is working out, yet prevents the U.S. from applying new sanctions if Japanese companies fall short of their promises...
Such a deadline was little more than half a day away when Hashimoto and Kantor reached their agreement. Had they not done so by midnight Wednesday, the U.S. was poised to impose 100% tariffs on 13 makes of Japanese luxury cars, including Lexus and Infiniti, raising their prices enough to make them virtually unmarketable in the U.S. and costing the Japanese automakers nearly $6 billion a year in lost sales. Japan could have retaliated by limiting imports from the U.S., perhaps of aircraft and farm products such as beef. That might have spurred another U.S. retaliation and started a spiral...