Koizumi takes tainted chalice as PM

Japan finally closed the book on the Mori era yesterday when Mr Junichiro Koizumi (59) was elected the country's 87th prime minister in the Diet.

Legislators in the Lower House gave him 287 votes out of 478 ballots cast, comfortably giving him the leadership over the only other candidate, the leader of the opposition Democratic Party, Mr Yukio Hatoyama.

Mr Koizumi takes the helm of a government still in coalition with the New Komeito Party and the New Conservatives after agreeing with his political partners to implement an economic rescue package already cleared by the Mori administration.

The former health and welfare minister, once regarded as a slightly eccentric figure with his right-wing views, unruly hair and taste for heavy-metal music, was catapulted into the top job by an LDP rank-and-file desperate to resuscitate what seems to many to be a party in its death-throes.

The new leader has been handed something of a poisoned chalice, reluctantly elected by a party that would prefer someone from its old guard, but which realises only someone who stands out from the old guard can save them from an election mauling in July.

All eyes will be on Mr Koizumi now to see whether he can deliver the reforms he promised, turn the ailing economy around and save his own party from political extinction. His choice of cabinet members already reflects the delicate balancing act he must play to keep warring factions within the LDP from pulling his government apart.

Having made much during the election campaign of his determination to choose political appointees based on talent rather than factional affiliation, some of Mr Koizumi's selections are indeed a break with the past.

Mr Heizo Takenaka, a university professor, has been picked as Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy, and there are five women, including two first-time appointments, Mrs Yoriko Kawaguchi as Minister of Environment, and Mrs Makiko Tanaka as Foreign Minister.

Mrs Tanaka, daughter of a former prime minister, Mr Kakuei Tanaka, is widely disliked within the LDP for her outspoken criticism of party-elders.

Other selections have suggested business as usual.