Word: hosokawa
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Indeed, many have predicted a flowering of Japanese democracy before. Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa's 1993 victory over the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, the first in decades, was short-lived. Within nine months, Hosokawa was out and party stalwarts ruled as before. This time, however, the outspoken governors and their grassroots electorates?who are now rising in open rebellion against central authority?appear to be something truly new. While Koizumi and Tokyo's power brokers are sidelined, it is maverick local leaders who are running up to the ball. Let's just hope the ball is still there when they...
...needs a cautionary tale about the impermanence of popularity, Koizumi need only call on former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa. In 1993, Hosokawa was a proto-Koizumi: a young, telegenic maverick, who promised to mend Japan's then newly burst bubble economy and reform old-style politics. And yes, he too had a youthful, blow-dried haircut. Hosokawa bolted from the LDP, cobbled together a coalition and became Prime Minister with Koizumi-like approval ratings. True to his word, he opened the protected rice market and introduced campaign-finance reform. But a minor scandal and an unwieldy coalition deflated Hosokawa. Eight...
...Today, Hosokawa spends most of his time making clay pots in his studio in Atami, a beachside city 100 km south of Tokyo. "I tried to break the system from the outside," he said recently in an interview at his home. "Koizumi is trying to do it from the inside." Now 63, the former Prime Minister concedes he bit off more than he could chew. "I look back and realize how strong this system is, how very deeply rooted in Japanese culture it is," he says. But he betrays no bitterness toward his adversaries or regrets about...
...largely because, in the grand tradition of U.S.-Japanese trade settlements, it left Washington and Tokyo ample room to quarrel about just what it was they had agreed to. Clinton enthused, "This agreement is specific. It is measurable. It will achieve real, concrete results." In Tokyo, however, Hisashi Hosokawa, a hard-line miti official, insisted that "this agreement is a rejection of numerical targets" for Japanese purchases of American cars and parts. His boss, miti Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, may have strengthened his already bright chances for becoming Japan's next Prime Minister: he was being hailed as a hero precisely...
...spotlight was on Japanese Foreign Minister Tsutomu Hata amid speculation that he would inherit the post vacated by former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa, who resigned two weeks ago. Like Hosokawa, Hata has been an outspoken critic of Japan's scandal-plagued political system; he also faces the challenge of holding together the fragile seven-party coalition that brought Hosokawa to power. Parliament is expected to vote on a new Prime Minister this week...