Koizumi Puts It All On The LIne

[NATO AIR]

and for our sake and the future of Japan, let's hope he survives.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002435361_plate12.html

Tom Plate / Syndicated columnist

Japanese voters will choose between change and stagnation

LOS ANGELES — Make no mistake about it; Japan is crucially important to the United States and the West. A Japan that falls in the East like a dying bird could leave the East Asian region with only China to reckon with. By contrast, a healthy and relatively happy Japan is a very good thing not only for the West but for all of Asia as well.

That's why the West (and the rest) needs to appreciate the monumental and historic significance of the upcoming national election in Japan early next month. The vote is symbolically a nationwide referendum on the very future direction of Japan: on whether Japan will, by reforming, be able to grow and remain one of the world's major powers, or whether it will begin a defeatist slide into the category of the second-rates and the has-beens.

This, to be sure, is not officially how the election is structured. Technically, it is simply a vote to decide the makeup of the lower house of the Japanese Diet — or Congress. But the lower house gets to determine who becomes and stays as prime minister.

It is the dramatic decision of the current Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi that has led to this surprise election. Koizumi has been a lifelong member of the gargantuan Liberal Democratic Party, and is a self-styled visionary populist rather than a backroom insider.
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[Zhukov]

It would be a great thing if the Japanese people decided to willingly lop off the dead weight of socialism.

It would lead to a boon for the Japanese economy, a renaissance for the Japanese people (which their cultural psychology so desperately needs right now), and would be an excellent example for the whole Western world to follow. If Koizumi's gamble works the Japanese could well teach us all a valuable lesson.

I hope it does work. The Japanese people need to feel they are great again. They need to become great again. Under our tutelage they can become both great and good.

It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of that development as it concerns not only Asia but the whole world.

 

[NATO AIR]

It would be a great thing if the Japanese people decided to willingly lop off the dead weight of socialism.

It would lead to a boon for the Japanese economy, a renaissance for the Japanese people (which their cultural psychology so desperately needs right now), and would be an excellent example for the whole Western world to follow. If Koizumi's gamble works the Japanese could well teach us all a valuable lesson.

I hope it does work. The Japanese people need to feel they are great again. They need to become great again. Under our tutelage they can become both great and good.

It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of that development as it concerns not only Asia but the whole world.

You are quite right, let us hope he wins....