Word: koizumi
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Junichiro Koizumi is a career politician and a third-generation LDP man, the grandson of a former head of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and a former minister of Health and Welfare under the man he beat out in this election, Ryutaro Hashimoto. Yet Koizumi ran for prime minister in 1995 without support from the party faithful. He has wavy hair, fiery rhetoric, an ex-wife - not common in Japanese politics - and what seems to be a genuine passion for just the kind of free-market, tough-medicine reforms that Japan desperately needs after ten years in the economic...
...near-exclusive hold on power since 1955 is in serious trouble after a string of prime ministers - culminating in the comically feeble year-long term of Yoshiro Mori - only dug Japan's heels further into the mud. Facing potentially disastrous parliamentary elections in July, the LDP found Koizumi's wide popular support irresistible, and his face - representing, at least cosmetically, a call for reform - not a little convenient...
...TIME.com: It seems as if the early line on Koizumi is that he's either the answer to all of Japan's problems or destined for a short and frustrated political career...
...Frank Gibney: Well, he's definitely not the answer to all Japan's problems. It's certainly a hopeful sign that he comes in with such resounding public support. But if Koizumi is a rebel, he's still an old-line LDP guy. And no matter how committed he is to reforming the LDP, he's still dealing with the same party guys who have chosen prime ministers for so long - and made the post pretty much a revolving door...
...party seemed willing to respond to public opinion in this case. Can Koizumi force economic reform from the ground...