PM Keita Asakura vs Yasuo Fukuda

Fukuda's Low-Key Style Frustrates Japanese
On Eve of Hosting G-8 Summit, Prime Minister
Struggles to Get Basic Laws Passed at Home
By SEBASTIAN MOFFETT and HIROKO TABUCHI
July 1, 2008; Page A11

Tokyo

In the hot new Japanese TV drama "Change," Prime Minister Keita Asakura is a dynamic 35-year-old with charisma. He nixes pork-barrel construction projects in favor of more money for child care. After a deadly storm hits, Mr. Asakura rushes to the scene, barking orders to bungling bureaucrats. And he stands up to the U.S. in agriculture trade talks. "I have the responsibility to protect the Japanese people," Mr. Asakura tells enthralled voters. "I am one of you."

Meanwhile, Yasuo Fukuda -- Japan's actual prime minister -- has described himself as "a shadow." When he hosts the Group of Eight summit in Japan next week, he will be the oldest of the group's leaders, turning 72 this month. Since he took office in September he has been thwarted or held up in almost everything he's tried to do -- from renewing a mission to help counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan to appointing a central bank governor.

"I don't feel that he has any leadership whatsoever," says Tomoyuki Matsumoto, 42, who works for an insurance company in Tokyo.

Mr. Fukuda's passive tenure is increasingly frustrating the Japanese, as the world's second-largest economy struggles with a falling population. To avoid this leading to declining living standards, economists say Japan needs bold measures, including more deregulation to promote faster growth, as well as an overhaul of its social-security system. But with a divided parliament and a leader who isn't inclined to take action, Japan could continue its drift until parliamentary elections well into next year.

Mr. Fukuda's struggle stems largely from the split parliament, which he inherited. The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, or DPJ, dominates the Upper House, which has significant delaying and veto powers. But Mr. Fukuda hasn't come up with imaginative solutions to the bind, and the public mostly blames him and his low-key style: His approval ratings were just 26% in a poll published Monday by the Nikkei newspaper.

But even the most basic laws are getting held up in Japan's parliament. Japan has fallen behind its Asian neighbors in free-trade agreements. While the government mulls steps to promote Tokyo as a regional financial center, Singapore and Hong Kong are snatching business away.

Mr. Fukuda could hang on for a while because the opposition DPJ is also unpopular. Earlier talk within his Liberal Democratic Party of dumping Mr. Fukuda after the G-8 summit appears to have died down recently, as the LDP party has become slightly more popular than the DPJ in polls. He might still lead his party into the next Lower House general election, which must be held by September 2009.

The current jam derives from a political upheaval in Japan earlier this century. After years of weak, short-lived governments, Junichiro Koizumi became prime minister in 2001 amid banking problems and an economic slump. He used dramatic appeals to the public to push through controversial initiatives -- from cutting public spending to clearing up banks' bad loans -- which helped pull the economy out of its slump and set a new standard for Japanese leadership.

When Mr. Koizumi stepped down in 2006, Shinzo Abe, then 52, took over, and failed to live up to the post-Koizumi expectations. Voters turned against him, and in an election a year ago the LDP lost control of the Upper House.

The LDP chose Mr. Fukuda to take over in part because he represented an older style of politics that had worked in the past. He was inoffensive, inclined to gather consensus and as the son of a former prime minister, Takeo Fukuda, he knew the ropes.

Mr. Fukuda wasn't born a politician. After graduating college, he became a "salaryman" at Maruzen Oil Co., the predecessor to Cosmo Oil Co.

But after his younger brother fell ill, Mr. Fukuda went to work as an aide to his father, who had become prime minister. Later, when his father retired, he became a parliamentarian. "He wasn't the type to push for anything himself, or to trample on other people," says Sakutaro Tanino, a former ambassador to China who was pitcher on Mr. Fukuda's elementary school baseball team.

Today, Mr. Fukuda is known for being cerebral and affable. In his free time, he listens to music by Bartók. His motto is "radiant without being glorious," a saying from ancient Chinese philosopher Laozi.

"He doesn't put on a performance," says Seishiro Eto, an LDP lawmaker close to Mr. Fukuda. "He stands back from people and gives way."

As prime minister, Mr. Fukuda called his first administration the "back against the wall" cabinet, and immediately struggled with the hand he has been dealt. His government has run into trouble over legislation that in the past would have been routine. The opposition temporarily stalled the renewal of a three-decade-old gas tax, making gas prices dip for April, then shoot back up as the administration forced the tax through parliament. Trying to avoid such impasses, Mr. Fukuda has approached the DPJ numerous times for a truce, but so far has failed.

Mr. Fukuda has racked up some diplomatic successes. Relations with China had been thorny for years, but in May Mr. Fukuda received Chinese President Hu Jintao in Tokyo, the first visit by a Chinese head of state to Japan in a decade. In June the countries made a breakthrough in a long-running dispute over sea territory, when they agreed to jointly develop offshore natural-gas fields. Still, critics say Mr. Fukuda should be doing more to prepare Japan for the future.

That may be why Mr. Asakura's fantasy government is so popular. The weekly show, which starts with an image of dawn rising over Japan's parliament building, has attracted about 20% of TV households in the Tokyo area since it began in May. In an episode before Mr. Asakura's elevation, a young lawmaker talks excitedly of the rise of Sen. Obama, 46, and U.K. Conservative Party leader David Cameron, 41. Japan's stodgy politicians, by contrast, are steeped in backroom politics and out of touch with the nation, he says. "World leaders are getting younger and younger, but look at Japan!" he says.

Some Japanese politicians are taking notice. Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba -- at 51, the youngest cabinet minister in a major post-said he was a fan of the show. "There are honestly some parts I empathize with," he told reporters last month. "Politicians need to rethink what they stand for."
Write to Sebastian Moffett at sebastian.moffett@wsj.com and Hiroko Tabuchi at hiroko.tabuchi@wsj.com

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