| Zen of Power |
12 April 2004
|
Japan's Koizumi Announces He Won't Run Again
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan made it official last week; he will spend only two more years in the job. He is incredibly popular for a leader who has served for 3 years. He is retiring because he wishes to be "liberated" from the job. The fact that he has increased his power to force through more reform is a happy by-product.
Liberal Democrat party rules say he can't have a third term, but with no clear successor, it is certain the party would change its rules if the prime minister wanted it. But in a cabinet e-mail magazine, he said, "For the next two years, I must grit my teeth and work hard .... My mission will be completed once the reforms are realized. Then, I would like to be liberated from the prime minister's seat as soon as possible."
By denying the electorate a chance to reject him, he has denied the opposition (both in the
Diet
and in the national bureaucracy) a chance to undermine him. He has the votes, and he has two years. His critics have complained that he hasn't achieved enough reform. He is now poised to ram through everything so long as he can keep hold of his MPs.
Prime Minister Koizumi, however, has a newly minted hostage crisis in Iraq that could do for him what a similar situation did for Jimmy Carter. Three Japanese have been kidnapped in Iraq and their captors are insisting they won't come home until the Japanese military unit in Iraq leaves. They have also threatened to burn these people alive. In addition, Iraqi hotheads have attacked the Japanese camp. Reports said there were no casualties. If that changes, Mr. Koizumi's reforms will move a long way down the list of national priorities.
Home