Word: kaifu
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...York Congressman Charles Rangel said such remarks were becoming a "national sport in Japan." For Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu, preparing for a U.S. trip, Kajiyama's words were ill timed. Kaifu already has to take heat for Japan's reluctance to participate in the gulf, where, U.S. politicians point out, blacks are among those protecting Tokyo's oil interests. Kajiyama quickly apologized. Or did he? He retracted his statement, saying it was inappropriate for him to comment on U.S. race problems, but he never said he was sorry...
Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu is apprehensive about his scheduled meeting with George Bush in New York City this week. Both men know that many Americans want Japan to play a larger role in the Persian Gulf. After the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, Kaifu's government dithered for nearly a month before offering $1 billion to help finance the multilateral response. "Contemptible tokenism!," harrumphed Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican. The U.S. ambassador in Tokyo, Michael Armacost, was more diplomatic, but just as tough. Two weeks ago, Kaifu raised the figure to $4 billion -- serious money but eminently affordable...
...Japanese justify keeping their military personnel out of harm's way by citing their "peace constitution," which the U.S. imposed after World War II and which restricts the carefully named Self-Defense Forces to the home islands and territorial waters. Still, some of Kaifu's advisers believe the government could send communications and logistics experts, even minesweepers to the crisis zone. Last week, in an effort to blunt the criticism that Japan is wimping out, the Foreign Ministry dispatched a small team of volunteer medics to Saudi Arabia and promised more may follow. Others advocate dispatching combat units under United...
...keeping the world safe for Japanese exports and investments. The political system depends, sometimes to the point of paralysis, on consensus. The prime ministership has rarely been a bully pulpit, especially in recent years. After a massive stock-trading scandal, the shoguns of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party chose Kaifu in 1989 not just because he was untainted. He was untested and unthreatening as well, a caretaker who would be easy to push around and eventually to push aside...
Earlier this year Kaifu showed signs of being a lot better than that. Demonstrating unexpected skill and boldness, he engineered major progress in trade talks with the U.S. This week he could advance both his own standing and his country's by bringing more than just his checkbook to his meeting with Bush...