Japan gets new PM

Sisil Panditha

Strong Kyushu man - Kyushu danji - new Prime Minister of Japan Taro Aso, celebrated his 68th Birthday last Saturday.

He was born in Iizuka, Fukuoka, Southern part of Japan in Kyushu Island.

He is a graduate of Gakushin University from the Faculty of Politics and Economics in Tokyo., then went on to Stanford University in America, he returned to Japan on ship, and left once more for further education at The London School of Economics.

He joined his father’s company in 1966 and served as the President of Aso Mining Company from 1973-79. The company was mining coal, and had used forced- labour during World War II which was highlighted and he distanced himself from the company.

He represented Japan in 1976 at Montreal Summer Olympics as a participant on the shooting team. The venue was outside Montreal at the Olympic Shooting Range, L’Acadie, Quebec.

In October 1979 he was elected as a member of the House of Representatives and been reelected eight times. In 1988 he was Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Education. In 2003 during the term of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi he was Minister of Internal Affairs and Post & Communications.

On 31 October 2005 he was appointed the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Mr. Aso was one of the final candidates to replace Koizumi as Prime Minister in 2006, but lost the internal elections to Shinzo Abe by a wide margin.

In 2007 on September 14, shortly after Mr. Abe announced his resignation Mr. Aso announced his candidacy to replace Mr. Abe as prime Minister. Mr. Aso was initially considered to be a leading candidate for the position, but was soon eclipsed by Mr. Yasuo Fukuda, a more “dorish” politician supported by many. Mr.

Fukuda defeated Mr. Aso, receiving 330 votes against 197 votes for Mr. Aso.

On 1st August 2008, Prime Minister Fukuda appointed Mr. Aso as the Secretary -General of the Liberal Democratic Party.

At a lecture in Nagasaki, he referred to a Japanese peace initiative in the Middle East, stating “The Japanese were trusted because they had never been involved in exploitation there, or been involved in fights or fired machine guns. Japan is doing what the Americans can’t do. It would probably be no good to have blue eyes and blonde hair. Luckily, we Japanese have yellow faces”.

He has repeated his commitments to getting the national economy back on the road to recovery, a matter that has become more pressing given recent global economic uncertainties, as well as continuing to improve relations with China. There was also a general admission that the LDP has experienced a crisis of public confidence indicated by the popularity in the opinion polls of the Opposition Democratic Party of Japan.

Mr. Aso is out-spoken and conservative. He has the experience with Jewish, Kakyo and Inkyo people and also with Diamonds and Gold. We look forward to having a better economy that would go hand in hand with preserving the environment.