Junichiro Koizumi, Japan’s maverick Prime Minister, has a rival for the title of the great reformer in the shape of a self-made multimillionaire who describes this Sunday’s general election as a contest between old and new Japan.
Takafumi Horie, the 32-year-old chief executive of Livedoor, an internet services company, became a household name earlier this year after he launched an aggressive, but unsuccessful, bid to gain control of Fujisankei, one of Japan’s most influential media groups.
He is now the most visible of the ”assassins”, a group of high-profile outsiders handpicked by Koizumi which includes a celebrity chef and a former beauty queen, who have been sent to constituencies across the country.
They are standing against more than 30 former Liberal Democratic party rebels who voted against post office privatisation, a cornerstone of Koizumi’s reform agenda.
Since calling a snap election after his reform Bills were defeated in the upper house of Parliament, Koizumi has turned the vote into a referendum on the future of the post office, which employs 400 000 people and holds savings and other assets of $3,3-trillion.
Despite his setback in Parliament, Koizumi says he is determined to end the close ties between the post office and the LDP old guard, who have for years garnered votes with promises of money for dubious local construction projects, often financed by Japanese government bonds bought with post office funds.
Horie unexpectedly entered the political fray after a private meeting with Koizumi. Though he is standing as an independent, the LDP decided not to campaign in the Hiroshima constituency where Horie is running against the formidable politician Shizuka Kamei.
Kamei (68) a leading opponent of postal reform, left the LDP to form the People’s New party after Koizumi withdrew his party’s electoral support for the rebels.
”Mr Kamei is a symbol of the old style of Japanese politics,” Horie said in Tokyo on Tuesday. ”If I defeat him it will give people hope that Japan really can change. I couldn’t just stand by and watch someone who opposed postal reform get elected again.”
Horie, whose disdain for the formalities of the political and corporate worlds is evident in his designer T-shirts and spiky hair, evoked a vision of a Japan that would welcome more immigrants, directly elect its president, put a man in space and act as a mediator between the US and its potential superpower rival, China.
”We have to destroy the old Japan in order to change this country,” he said.
”America’s strength lies in the creativity and contribution of immigrants, but Japan must seem a very cold place to foreigners. We should be more welcoming towards immigrants; they would contribute to our power and strength.”
Despite claims by critics that he is a publicity seeker with little to say on issues other than postal reform, Horie reeled off an ambitious package of changes that even Koizumi might balk at.
Although he does not support the abolition of the monarchy, Horie said the most energetic and vibrant countries were led by presidents.
”The first line of the constitution says the emperor is the symbol of the country. But people don’t stand up and challenge that, because they are scared of being attacked by rightwing extremists.”
Koizumi’s use of outsiders such as Horie appears to be working. Opinion polls show the LDP may even win enough seats in the 480-seat lower house to form a government without its current coalition partner, the Buddhist-backed New Komeito.
One poll suggested that the turnout could be as high as 75%, due to high interest among younger voters, a trend Horie welcomes. ”We have great people, history and traditions, yet our politicians are sorely lacking,” he said. ”Young people think politicians are dirty. I want them to look on them as cool and capable.” – Guardian Unlimited Â