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Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 25, 2001
TOKYO -- He is the closest thing to a rebel that Japan has. But Junichiro Koizumi, the man who has come to embody this insecure country's hopes for a brighter future, is no firebrand revolutionary.
Koizumi rose to the top of the governing Liberal Democratic Party on Tuesday by exploiting his bad-boy image within a political organization whose rank-and-file members, like the public at large, are longing for a plainspoken leader with charisma and a vision of a new, politically and economically vibrant Japan.
Koizumi has those qualities in abundance. Still, he could not have clawed his way into the party's upper echelons by bucking the status quo, and thus he sends conflicting messages about who he is and how he will govern.
Koizumi, who will be voted in as prime minister on Thursday, is a third-generation politician. His grandfather, Matajiro Koizumi, was a farmer's son from south of Yokohama who became a plasterer and later a member of the lower house of Parliament. He served as minister of posts in a pre-World War II Cabinet.
Matajiro's only daughter, Yoshie, eloped. Her husband, Junya, adopted his father-in-law's surname. Junya Koizumi ran for the lower house and at one time served in the Parliament at the same time as his father-in-law. Junichiro Koizumi -- born Jan. 8, 1942 in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture -- was one of the six children of Yoshie and Junya Koizumi.
Koizumi, 59, graduated from Keio University in 1967 with a degree in economics. He was doing postgraduate work at the London School of Economics when his father died, and he quickly returned to Japan to run for his father's seat in Parliament. He lost by 4,000 votes.
He then worked as a junior secretary to Takeo Fukuda, who later became prime minister, leaving his home in Yokosuka and trekking two hours to the western part of Tokyo where Fukuda had his office.
"Petitioners made a line outside every morning," he told the Asahi Shimbun in an interview several years ago. "I guarded the entrance, did calligraphy for Fukuda and dealt with the phone."
That left him time in the afternoons to prowl his father's former district and make himself known to constituents. His link to Fukuda helped, too, and three years after his defeat, he won the seat.
Koizumi married Kayoko Miyamoto, whose grandfather founded a major pharmaceutical company. They had two sons and then divorced, making him one of the few men in Japanese politics who is not married.
He has a reputation as a bit of a rake and proudly acknowledges that he spends a fair amount of time in hostess bars, although those close to him say he usually returns home around 8:30 p.m. and listens to opera until late.
In 1992, his escapades created a stir when a young geisha from the Shimbashi district in Tokyo committed suicide. Magazines reported that Koizumi was her best patron, helping her to buy an apartment and kimonos, and that she had fallen into despair because he would not marry her.
Koizumi's aides denied the stories.
In his political career, as well as in his choice of alter egos, Koizumi is a man of dualities.
"Koizumi has both sides to him," said Yoshimi Watanabe, a party member in Parliament who advocates reform.
Koizumi, for example, stood solidly behind Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori last fall when the scandal-tainted prime minister was challenged by one of Koizumi's closest political allies, Koichi Kato. Recently, however, he resigned from his faction in the party, decrying factional politics.
"He has parts that go against the typical Japanese political traditions, but on the other hand, he had led a party faction, publicly supported the faction system and protected Mori from Kato," Watanabe said.
While Koizumi sets himself apart, for example, he has long advocated official visits to a temple complex that is the focal point of Japan's murky right wing. During his campaign, he promised that if he won he would pay his respects at Yasukuni Shrine, where the remains of Japanese soldiers killed in war are interred, including those indicted as war criminals after World War II. Koizumi will be able to combine his status as a party insider with his public appeal, something Japan's recent prime ministers have lacked.
In addition to the support from the party's rank and file, Koizumi has the backing of independent voters. His outspokenness and frank manner are a refreshing change from the bland vagaries of most senior politicians.
"He's like a cook who makes an extremely hot curry and says, "Look, my curry is very hot; if you don't like it, don't eat it,' " Watanabe said.
Pressed for details on his policies at his first news conference after Tuesday's party election, Koizumi gave few clues.
Asked about his economic revival plan, he smiled -- and dodged: "I haven't decided on my Cabinet yet, so I can't say." The former health minister with little experience on the international stage also said little on foreign affairs, noting only that the U.S.-Japan relationship will be the foundation of his foreign policy.
He also appeared to soften his stance against old-style LDP dealmaking.
"Politics is about compromise, people say. Sometimes I'll have to compromise. Sometimes I'll have to push my views."