Word: moris
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With his bull neck and broad shoulders, Yoshiro Mori looks more like a rugby player than a politician. He is perceived as an overcautious, scandal-tainted back-room dealer with no discernible ideology, little international experience and zero tact. In recent months, he has managed to insult Americans, Okinawans, Osakans, AIDS sufferers and teachers. As for political courage, even friends say he has the heart of a flea. All of which makes Mori, 62, an ideal Prime Minister--at least in the eyes of the long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party, which last week chose him to replace the incapacitated Keizo...
...Mori's physical dynamism contrasted sharply with the dour frailty of his predecessor, who lay in a coma last week after a massive stroke. But the L.D.P. secretary-general was picked for the top post mainly because of his skills as a fixer in the back rooms of Japanese politics, where real decision making takes place. What his faction-riddled party needs most in these turbulent times--as the country faces a devastating volcanic eruption in the north, economic stagnation and a crisis of confidence--is someone who can hold things together...
...Mori's first task will be to restore the public's faith in the government, which was badly shaken by the bumbling and deceitful handling of his predecessor's health emergency. It took 34 hours for Obuchi aide Mikio Aoki, who briefly stepped in as interim leader, to reveal the full extent of the Prime Minister's illness. Whether Mori can inspire trust and move the country along the path of badly needed financial and economic reforms remains to be seen. His 31-year career as a party apparatchik and former Education Minister and Trade Minister provides no evidence...
Perhaps. But what he has most conspicuously arranged in the past has been pork-barrel projects for his home region in western Japan, including an unnecessary $14 billion bullet-train route. Mori made it clear last week that he will continue the profligate spending of his predecessor, who during his brief, 20-month tenure doled out more than $300 billion for government projects, making him Japan's all-time biggest spendthrift. Don't count on Mori to close the spigot. Government spending "has a natural impact on the economy," he said last week. "Right now the economy is slowly recovering...
...things considered, the entire selection process was fraught with problems. Most disturbingly, interviews and polls of the Japanese public show little distress over either Obuchi's failing health or his replacement by Mori. Seemingly, the Japanese people have such little faith in their government that one party operative is equivalent to another. More than the back room politics and the spoon-fed media, the disillusionment of the Japanese people is disheartening. As the downward spiral of the Japanese government continues, economic recovery seems to slip farther and farther away. Without the support of the people, significant improvement is impossible...