Yasuo Fukuda, licensed to thrill

Richard Lloyd Parry
Tokyo

Japan’s nationalist right-wing is under assault after Yasuo Fukuda, a moderate within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party emerged as a challenger to the conservative favourite, Taro Aso, for the job of prime minister.

Mr Fukuda (pictured left, in his earlier job as a ninja), who favours greater engagement with Japan’s Asian neighbours and opposes visits to the controversial Yasukuni war shrine, will announce his candidacy for the leadership of the LDP today, according to Japanese television, a job that guarantees election to the post of prime minister.

Yesterday the outgoing prime minister, Shinzo Abe, whose sudden resignation on Wednesday brought about the political crisis, was admitted to hospital suffering from inflamed bowels, extreme weakness and stress. Although he technically remains in charge until a successor is chosen, his sudden abandonment of his post has provoked dismay and anger, and left Japan effectively leaderless at a time of intense political conflict.

Japan’s finance minister, Fukushiro Nukaga, became the first member of the LDP formally to announce his candidacy for the leadership election which will be held on 23 September. Sadakazu Tanigaki, another moderate and former finance minister, may also step forward when nominations are filed today. But it is the prospect of a battle between Mr Fukuda and Mr Aso, in opposite ideological corners of the ruling party, that will be the focus of excitement over the next week.

Since the beginning of the new millennium, Japanese politics has taken a distinct lurch to the right, with conservative nationalists more prominent and powerful than at any time since the Second World War – in different ways, Mr Abe, his predecessor and mentor, Junichiro Koizumi, and Mr Aso have led this shift.

Mr Koizumi radically reformed Japanese politics, but his pilgrimages to the Yasukuni Shrine, where Class A war criminals are honoured, enraged and alienated China and South Korea. Mr Abe has avoided praying at Yasukuni and mended relations with the neighbours, but his introduction of “patriotic education”, his ambiguous remarks about Japanese wartime atrocities, and his plans to revise the country’s post-war pacifist constitution marked him out as an ideological conservative.

If anything, 66-year old Mr Aso is more outspoken and provocative than both of them. Over the years, he has upset Koreans by suggesting that they benefited from Japanese colonial rule, offended members of Japan’s untouchable class by declaring that they are unfit for political office, and alienated ethnic minorities by describing the country as “one civilisation, one language, one culture, one race”.

He believes that not only Japanese politicians, but even Emperor Akihito should visit Yasukuni Shrine, a step which would devastate relations between the two countries. “The more China voices [opposition], the more one feels like going there,” he said last year. “It’s just like when you’re told ‘Don’t smoke cigarettes,’ it actually makes you want to smoke. It’s best [for China] to keep quiet.”

He is a passionate fan of manga comic books and animation; as foreign minister, he established an international prize for cartoonists. After Mr Abe’s resignation two days ago, shares in manga-related companies rose sharply in anticipation of a comic boom under an Aso administration.

Mr Fukuda, by contrast, is restrained, austere and tactful to the point of being boring, and belongs to the wing of the LDP which seeks to balance Japan’s military alliance with the United States with close and sensitive dealings with China. At 71, he is the choice of the older generation of LDP politicians who feared that they had been passed over by the succession of Mr Abe, a relative junior at 52.

He has served as chief cabinet secretary, the government’s chief spokesman and co-ordinator. Although he has never had a ministry of his own opinion polls have shown that he has the trust of Japanese business.

The LDP selects its leader by a combination of votes cast by MPs and by the representatives of regional party chapters. This time, their decision will be based not so much on ideology. as on which leader can do most to save the party.

In July, the party lost control of less powerful Upper House of the Japanese Diet to the opposition Democratic Party of Japan. It faces the real prospect of being forced into a general election in which it could lose power for only the second time in 52 years.

The day after his shock resignation, Mr Abe checked into a hospital in central Tokyo where he underwent tests including an endoscopy examination of his bowels and stomach. His doctors reported that he was “extremely weak”, and must spend at least three days in hospital, after losing 5 kilograms in weight over the past few months and suffering from stomach pain and loss of appetite.

“He is suffering from extreme exhaustion,” said his doctor, Toshifumi Hibi. “He has lost weight. Symptoms include abdominal plain, digestion problems and lack of appetite. These symptoms can be attributed to physical exhaustion and psychological stress.”

Comments

[Chen]

" But it is the prospect of a battle between Mr Abe and Mr Aso"

misprint of Mr Fukuda ?

How about a trio with a midwayer Mr Machimura?
(Lament for the death of Pavarotti.)

Arrogant\Moderate\Elegant;Hawk/Pigeon/Peacock......

[Well spotted! This will be corrected ... RLP]

[Gaijin]

Typo in para 4. "Abe" should read "Fukuda".

[Thank you, attentive reader. RLP]

[dude]

Sounds like politicians shouldn’t visit to Yasukuni because Korean and chemise enraged. The main reason they don't admit the visits is class-A war criminals are enshrined. But neither china nor Korean made any claim when class-A names were enshrined in 1979 and after 5 years visiting Yasukuni by premier of Japan every year. Then all of sudden they started to anger. So there must be a political intention by claiming Yasukuni for their national interests.

[ha]

What a dumb article.