Word: ohira
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...OHIRA and his squabbling LDP cronies have proved themselves incapable of that leadership. Their obsession with power plays and personal revenge, while hardly unusual for professional politicians, has torn their party apart. The LDP's Grand Guignol shocked a Japanese public accustomed to a veneer of unity and discretion...
With his approval rating down to 17 per cent and fellow LDP members licking their wounds, Ohira tried to restore peace by apportioning Cabinet posts among different factions. But some of his chief rivals refused to accept posts and have stated they will cooperate with Ohira only on a "case by case" basis--a precedent shattering break with Japanese traditions of party discipline. Ohira is also bound to Tanaka, who exacted a stiff fee in Cabinet posts for his key support. Among others, Ohira appointed Tadao Kuraishi, a Tanaka crony, as Justice Minister, at Tanaka's insistence...
Although Fukuda had also insisted on the appointment, which he hoped would embarass Ohira, Tanaka had other ideas, as Kuraishi soon made clear. Immediately after his appointment, Kuraishi shocked the nation by stating that the suspects were close, friends of his and he hoped they would be cleared. the prime minister is struggling to patch his party together, but still has no takers...
...bitter political infighting that characterized this election and the LDP's shrinking majority signal several political changes for Japan. The election results confirm that the LDP's salad days of dictating policy and setting the national agenda are over. Ohira needs to forge a new coalition of moderate-centrist opposition groups like the New Liberal Club, the Democratic Socialist Party and the Komeito "clean government" party to get legislation through the Diet. But working in this "period of equal balanced forces" requires wily and forceful leadership...
...Ohira's shaky political mandate also dooms his proposal for a tax hike to correct Japan's mounting deficit. The deficit, combined with a high inflation rate and a sharp drop in the yen, may have grave consequences for an already strained U.S.-Japan economic relationship. Japan has already begun to stopper its yen drain. These economic pressures will certainly curb Japanese willingness to liberalize import restrictions at a time when John Connally is bellowing about letting the Japanese sit in their Toyotas on the docks of Yokohoma. The only possible Japanese concession to American opposition prevails and cuts...