Word: koizumi
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...APPOINTED. SHINZO ABE, 51, as Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary, and TARO ASO, 65, as Foreign Minister; as part of a cabinet shuffle by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi; in Tokyo. Abe, a former secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and Aso, a veteran lawmaker, are both political thoroughbreds and the grandsons of former Prime Ministers. The elevation of the pair, each known for their assertive stances on Japan's relations with its Asian neighbors, sparked concerns in China and South Korea, whose relationships with Japan have soured over recent border disputes and lingering bitterness about Japan's past...
...PASSED. JAPAN'S POSTAL-REFORM BILLS, by a vote of 134 to 100, in the Upper House of parliament; in Tokyo. The vote ensures the enactment of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's plan to privatize the three functions of Japan's $3 trillion postal system, including the world's largest savings bank, by 2017. A cornerstone of Koizumi's reform agenda, the bills were voted down by the Upper House in August, causing the Prime Minister to call snap elections for the Lower House aimed at silencing critics of the plan?even those in his own party. (The Lower House...
DISMISSED. A LAWSUIT demanding damages by 188 plaintiffs offended by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's three visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors soldiers killed in past wars, among them 14 Class-A war criminals; by the Osaka High Court; in Osaka. Although the court rejected the demands for nominal payments of $90 per plaintiff from Koizumi, the Japanese government and the shrine, its judgment also said that the prime minister's visits?which routinely roil relations with China and South Korea by rekindling resentment of Japanese wartime atrocities?violate a constitutional requirement calling for the separation of church...
...framing Japan's Sept. 11 parliamentary election as a referendum on his postal-privatization plan and outmaneuvering his rivals with dextrous political campaigning, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has scored his greatest victory, helping the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to its biggest majority since 1986. The encore, however, could prove trickier. Koizumi's postal-reform bill, aimed at breaking Japan's $3 trillion postal service into four separate companies by 2017, will be re-submitted at a special Diet session this week and is all but guaranteed to pass. His plans beyond that are hazy. Koizumi has promised...
...Some wonder if the desire to drive through more of his oft-deferred reforms could spur Koizumi to extend his tenure. But he already appears to be handing tough choices off to his unnamed successor. He has avoided discussing any substantial reforms beyond postal privatization, and while LDP party secretary Tsutomu Takebe has admitted that mounting social-services costs have made a consumption tax hike imminent, Koizumi has committed not to raise them. With tough battles yet to come, University of Kyoto politics professor Terumasa Nakanishi and others believe stepping down as promised may be Koizumi's smartest move?leaving...