Word: miki
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...first such maneuver may be the resignation of Premier Miki. Soon after the election, one Miki aide asked rhetorically, "Why do we admire cherry blossoms so much? Because they fall so quickly. When they're still beautiful, still pure, the aesthetic is right. That's why Miki will resign." Miki himself told an associate, "The Japanese sense of grace will not permit me to stay." With that, he withdrew for the weekend to his mountain villa 80 miles west of Tokyo to put the final touches on what is expected to be an unusual combination: an offer...
Tight-lipped and haggard, Japan's Premier Takeo Miki waded into the TV glare to concede defeat. Acknowledging an "unprecedented crisis of the postwar years," Miki called on his faction-torn Liberal Democratic Party to "accept frankly the judgment of the people" and seek "reform and change." The L.D.P. has little choice. In an election upset with far-ranging implications, 57 million Japanese voters last week dealt the country's ruling party its worst drubbing since it was formed...
Good Judgment. What aroused cautious, conservative Japanese voters to overturn two decades of L.D.P. rule, was outrage over the "rokkiido" (Lockheed) scandal, plus concern over inflation (9.7%), pollution and soaring medical, housing and utility costs. Miki's decision to play a reformer's role and expose his own party's involvement in the Lockheed case was not sufficient to save the L.D.P. Confessed Miki, as he watched the votes pour in on television: "I can't help admiring the Japanese people for showing such good judgment...
With just 249 of 511 seats, Miki's Liberal Democrats could patch together a wafer-thin majority of three only after gaining the support of nine independents. Though the L.D.P. will still be able to form a government, its era of uncontested dominance is over. For the first time, it will be forced to woo opposition groups and indulge in parliamentary trade-offs and maneuvers...
...Miki's attitude typifies his defiance of L.D.P. tradition, a quality that has irritated, affronted and finally outraged party stalwarts. Deceptively mild-mannered, Miki, 69, displayed samurai nerve all year, pressing the Lockheed investigation to the indictment of 19 top businessmen and politicians, including his predecessor as Premier, Kakuei Tanaka. Even as he was acclaimed the "Mr. Clean" of Japanese politics, party leaders tried to dump him for exposing L.D.P. improprieties. Backed in the struggle by public opinion and the press, Miki had hoped for vindication at the polls...