Word: tanaka
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...groups. He chose his Cabinet so as to give proper balance to members of the various factions; with seven of the 21 ministries, Tanaka's men won the lion's share. Although he is more outspoken than his predecessors, Nakasone avoids making decisions unilaterally. Like a chairman of the board, he must operate by consensus...
...servants not only write most of the legislation but then decide how to administer the laws. Bureaucrats, as a result, occupy a position of high prestige. They work closely with the country's business leaders and politicians, and deserve much of the credit for Japan's economic success. As Tanaka once said, 80% of a Prime Minister's job consists of getting the civil service to do what he wants...
...ritual. Early in the morning, he strolls through his sprawling Tokyo compound, with its exquisitely pebbled garden and tiny pools a pa to a spacious reception hall. There he spends the day greeting a parade of visitors. Politicians, businessmen, constituents: they all come to pay homage to Kakuei Tanaka. For a man forced out as Prime Minister in 1974 for financial juggling, and still awaiting a verdict on charges of pocketing a $2 million bribe, the pageant of respect is remarkable. He remains the country's mightiest politician-the "Shogun of the Darkness," as Tanaka has christened himself...
...anomaly. Of Japan's 16 postwar Prime Ministers, Tanaka is the only one who never attended college. The son of a poor farmer in a drowsy little in in Nishiyama, he headed off to Tokyo at age 15 with less than $3 in his pockets. Working at a small building firm during the day, Tanaka took a night course in civil engineering; by 19, he was the owner of a prosperous construction business. After making a small fortune as a wartime entrepreneur building barracks, he won a Diet seat in 1947. Lacking the school and family connections that make...
Within months of taking office, he re-established diplomatic ties with China, while preserving Japan's lucrative economic ties with Taiwan. But Tanaka's popularity caught up with him in 1974, when a Japanese magazine exposed the fact that he had used a skein of dummy corporations and false tax statements to conceal his shadowy ways of making money. Amid the public uproar that ensued, Tanaka felt compelled to resign...