Word: ohira
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...Frankly," admitted a stunned Premier Takeo Fukuda, "I was astounded." "It was a surprise to me, too," aid Masayoshi Ohira, secretary-general of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (L.D.P.). What startled them and their countrymen last week was the result of a four-way race for Fukuda's job as the leader of the L.D.P. and, therefore, of Japan's government. Though the experts had forecast a dull election in which the urbane Fukuda, 73, would easily win a second term, he was thoroughly whipped by Ohira, 68, a deliberate, unassuming technocrat known in Japanese politics...
Washington was equally startled. Fukuda was a particular favorite of President Carter, despite the 20-year difference in their ages. Fukuda at least appeared to understand American irritation over the imbalance in trade between the two countries that has been one main cause of the dollar's tribulations. Ohira intends to continue and even increase support for the greenback (see box). But because Ohira, as chief Cabinet secretary to Premier Hayato Ikeda in 1960, was an architect of Japan's spectacularly successful drive to make Japan an exporting juggernaut, Washington is uncertain about how eager he will...
...attention to domestic problems that forged Ohira's upset victory. Until this year the L.D.P., which has held control of Japan's parliamentary government since it was formed in 1955, always picked its leader, who automatically becomes Premier, in a caucus of L.D.P. members in the Diet. In a party composed of strong and combative factions, this led to open vote buying, bribery and scandal. With former Premier Kakuei Tanaka now on trial in the Lockheed influence-peddling scandal, the L.D.P. decided to try to clean up its image as a party of feuding bosses and "black mist...
...Ohira was also helped by the backing of the wealthy and politically crafty Tanaka, who is a longtime foe of Fukuda. Tanaka, who still heads one of the strongest L.D.P. factions despite the corruption charges, helped devise Ohira's winning strategy, which was to lie low until two weeks before the vote, then launch a costly, eleventh-hour campaign blitz. Lulled by the polls, which consistently showed him with a comfortable lead, Fukuda never had time to counterattack...
...Ohira is a stocky, heavy-lidded farmer's son who sifts his thoughts, acts cautiously and speaks slowly. But behind Ohira's placid manner lurks a strong mind and steel will. He is more intellectual than most Japanese politicians. At least once a week he visits a bookstore to browse and buy; he reads Japanese authors and foreign writers in translation (a recent acquisition: John Kenneth Galbraith's The Age of Uncertainty...