Landslide Victory of LDP? Who Dares?

On October 11 in Japan, two formidable rivals showed up to battle at the government party, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which is expecting an easy victory in the upcoming race of the Japanese Diet election.

Tanaka Makiko (59,F), the former foreign minister, who is also the only daughter of the late Tanaka Kakuei, the former prime minister of Japan, and, Fujii Haruho, (67, M), the chief of Japan Road Corporation, are the rivals.

Tanaka, the former foreign minister, is attracting a lot of support, while Fujii, the chief of Road Corporation, nicknamed the ‘Clan of Construction’, is being backed by the government related construction companies. They stand out in bold relief of competing with Koizumi, the current prime minister of Japan.

The LDP overstrained itself from its explosive power that might make changes in the air following LDP’s landslide victory. The leading opposition party, Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) welcomes the news, stirring up the flames of competition.

Tanaka, with her straight-forwarded personality, uses coarse language to strike up a fuss against her rivals but is highly reputed among the public. On October 5, she set forth her intention to run for office in an effort to get revenge over her disgraceful resignation to the heads of LDP, which egged on her retirement last year.

Tanaka, who previously had taken the role of manager of LDP, is more popular than Koizumi, but her previous controversial remarks stirred up complaints from the public, incurring the party figures’ anger. Finally, she was forced to step down from her position as Minister and member of Parliament when the secretary salary embezzlement scandal broke out last year.

The expected region she would represent is Niigata, where her late father had grasped political power for 40 years. She seems to aim for an anti-Koizumi campaign that can result in the LDP’s huge defeat in election and negatively influence the whole country. The LDP is feeling very pressured.

On the other hand, since the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister (LITM) egged Fujii to step down because of the poor progress of reform, Fuji, the chief of Road Corporation, which has been pointed out as a model target of structural reform remarked, “Among all the others, I lead the reform with my employees.” Raging with anger he said, “This is an insult to my 40 years as a government officer.” Fujii declared war against the LDP, giving up his retirement grants worth $2.1 million, which he would receive if he voluntarily resigned.

The minister of LITM, Ishihara Nobuteru (the first son of Ishihara Shintaro, the provincial governor of Tokyo) announced his retirement when he heard of Fujii’s turn-down. However, he has to face the muddy quarrels because the hearing will take place in two or three weeks.

Some agencies broke this story down as LDP getting counterattacked, when it took out the retirement card, in order to disturb the party merger of the opposition party, the DPJ and the Liberal Party (LP) on October 5. However, the LDP is working on to clean it’s image as one struggling with its anti cliques, keeping its intention to drive Fujii out of his office.

Hun-Joo Cho hanscho@donga.com