Junichiro Koizumi

Junichiro Koizumi (Japanese: ?????, Koizumi Jun'ichir?, born January 8, 1942) is the current Prime Minister of Japan. Since winning leadership of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in 2001, he has become known as an advocate of reform, focusing on Japan's government debt and the privatization of its postal service. In 2005, he led the LDP to win one of the largest parliamentary majorities in modern Japanese history.

Koizumi as Prime Minister

Domestic policy

Within Japan, Koizumi has pushed for new ways to revitalise the moribund economy, aiming to act against bad debts with commercial banks, privatise the postal savings system, and reorganise the factional structure of the LDP. He spoke of the need for a period of painful restructuring in order to improve the future.

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To these aims, he first appointed an economist and a commentator, Heizo Takenaka, to the job of reforming the banking sector. Under their reign, the bad debts of banks have been cut dramatically with the NPL ratio of major banks approaching half the level of 2001. The Japanese economy has been through a slow but steady recovery, and the stock market has dramatically rebounded. The GDP growth for 2004 is expected to be one of the highest among G7 nations according to the IMF and OECD. Takenaka was appointed as a Postal Reform Minister in 2004 and the privatization of Japan Post, operator of the country's Postal Savings system, is reaching a critical moment.

Related Topics:
Heizo Takenaka - GDP - G7 - IMF - OECD - 2004 - Japan Post

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Koizumi has also moved the LDP away from its traditional rural agrarian base toward a more urban, neoliberal core, as Japan's population grows in major cities and declines in less populated areas. In addition to the privatization of Japan Post (which many rural residents fear will reduce their access to basic services such as banking), Koizumi has also slowed down the LDP's heavy subsidies for infrastructure and industrial development in rural areas. These tensions have made Koizumi a controversial but popular figure within his own party and among the Japanese electorate.

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Foreign policy

Koizumi's most noted foreign policy achievement among Japanese commentators is his close relationship with the United States and cooperation in the U.S.-led mission in Iraq. Koizumi approved the expansion of the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) and in October 2001 they were given greater scope to operate outside of the country. Some of these troops were dispatched to Iraq to fulfill non-combat roles.

Related Topics:
United States - Iraq - Japan Self-Defense Forces - 2001 - Dispatched to Iraq

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Among other Asian commentators, Koizumi is most noted for his visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, starting on August 13, 2001. He has visited the shrine four times, most recently on January 1, 2004. Because the shrine also honours Japanese war criminals, these visits have drawn strong condemnation and protests from Japan's neighbors, mainly the People's Republic of China, North and South Korea, and the Philippines, who still hold bitter memories of Japanese colonization. Koizumi's father built an airfield in Kagoshima, which was used for kamikaze missions during 1944?5, and a cousin died on such a mission, which partly explains his keenness to visit the Yasukuni shrine. On August 15, 2005, the sixtieth anniversary of the end of World War II, Koizumi publicly stated that Japan was deeply saddened for the suffering it caused during World War II,an earlier apology made by Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama. The ceremony was met with scattered protests.

Related Topics:
Yasukuni Shrine - August 13 - 2001 - January 1 - 2004 - People's Republic of China - North - South Korea - Philippines - Kagoshima - Kamikaze - August 15 - 2005 - Tomiichi Murayama

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Popularity

Initially Koizumi was an extremely popular leader, with his outspoken nature and colourful past. His nicknames included "Lionheart" and "maverick". All this has taken place despite the strong opposition to his reform plans among the "old guards" within LDP and the bureaucracy. He sacked his popular but volatile Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka in January 2002, replacing her with Yoriko Kawaguchi. He was reelected in 2003 and his popularity surged as the economy recovered. A recent proposal to cut pensions benefits for the fiscal reform, however, turned out to be wildly unpopular, just like similar changes in other economies of the world, and restricted his administration's approval rating in the upper house election in 2004 to being only marginally better than the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).

Related Topics:
Makiko Tanaka - 2002 - Yoriko Kawaguchi - 2003 - Democratic Party of Japan

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In 2005, Koizumi decided to dissolve the Lower House and call a general election since the House of Councilors rejected the contentious postal privatization bills. This threat was made after the bills to privatize Japan Post cleared the Lower House in June only by a margin of five votes. Fifty-one LDP members either voted against the bills or abstained. In the 480-seat Lower House, the LDP, with 250 seats, and New Komeito, with 34, hold a comfortable majority. The bills were rejected by the Upper House, with 108 approving and 125 against, with 22 LDP members dissenting.

Related Topics:
Postal privatization bills - Japan Post

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The secretary general of New Komeito (a junior coalition partner with Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party) said on 27 July 2005 that his party would entertain forming a coalition government with the Democratic Party of Japan if, in a snap election, the DPJ took a majority in the House of Representatives. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20050728a2.htm

Related Topics:
Komeito - 27 July - 2005

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The Lower House was dissolved on August 8, 2005 at 7:04 pm (JST) at a special plenary session under article 7 of the Constitution of Japan by imperial edict. Snap elections took place on September 11, 2005 and were a major victory for Koizumi. Koizumi's popularity rose almost twenty points after he dissolved the Diet, with opinion polls placing the government's approval ratings between 51 and 59 percent. (For details, see: Japan general election, 2005.)

Related Topics:
August 8 - 2005 - JST - Constitution of Japan - Snap election - September 11 - Japan general election, 2005

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