Word: koizumi
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...banned since 1954 - was hoping to train the members to eventually return home to overthrow President Hosni Mubarak's regime. Senior Brotherhood leader Essam El Eryan told TIME that his group was "against violence." Families Reunited NORTH KOREA After meeting with leader Kim Jong Il, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi won the release of five children of former Japanese abductees who were kidnapped by North Korea in the 1970s and set free almost two years ago. In return, Koizumi pledged emergency aid for North Korea...
...seven Cabinet members) have been found so far to have been delinquent at some point. Hoping to temper the damage to the LDP with a single sacrificial lamb, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda turned in his resignation two weeks ago. Kan followed suit three days later. Late last week, Koizumi admitted that he, too, had missed a series of payments but had done so long before contributions became mandatory in 1986. Not surprisingly, the DPJ has called for his resignation, though that is unlikely...
...reasonable person would wager that the last place Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi would ever want to revisit would be North Korea. The first time he went, in September 2002, Koizumi intended to show his skill and stature as an international statesman. That backfired spectacularly when Kim Jong Il confessed unrepentantly that North Korea had kidnapped 13 Japanese citizens in the 1970s and '80s?and had no intention of allowing the five survivors to return home. The Japanese public was outraged, the fate of the kidnap victims became Koizumi's biggest headache, and the issue cramped Japan's ability...
...Dear Leader eventually allowed the abductees to "visit" Japan?none have chosen to return to North Korea?but he refused to let their spouses and children join them. Last week, Koizumi announced he was going back to Pyongyang for a meeting on May 22 or 23. Some political experts think Koizumi wouldn't risk a return trip if he weren't convinced that behind-the-scenes negotiations have assured him of his Rambo moment?he's going back in and he's bringing them out alive...
...Trusting Kim to play nice tends to be a sucker's bet. But Koizumi is willing to take the gamble, perhaps because his administration is being buffeted by an ever-widening scandal at home. Seven government ministers have admitted to skipping their payments into the national pension scheme, and last week Koizumi himself said he had, at times, failed to make payments before they became mandatory in 1986. A triumph in Pyongyang would be a welcome distraction. The automatic winner in the deal is Kim, who appears to have Japan's leader at his beck and call. But if Koizumi...