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PROFILE: Maehara looking to become youngest postwar prime minister(Japan Economic Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) TOKYO, Aug. 27 -- (Kyodo) _ Former Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara, who is running in the Democratic Party of Japan's presidential race, is looking to become the youngest prime minister in the country's postwar history as a leading contender to replace Naoto Kan. Junior DPJ lawmakers are said to be hoping that Maehara, 49, will take office as he has been popular among the public with his youthful image and strong speaking skills. But he has faced difficulty receiving support from the party's senior members including power broker Ichiro Ozawa, a former DPJ president. Maehara, who studied international politics at Kyoto University, is considered hawkish on foreign policy, in particular Japan's relationship with China, advocating amending Article 9 of the nation's pacifist Constitution, which bars the use of military force in settling international disputes. He shares similar views on defense matters with several members of the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party including its chief policymaker Shigeru Ishiba, raising hopes among some DPJ lawmakers that Maehara could break the political deadlock through better relations with the LDP as opposition parties control the House of Councillors in the divided Diet. Building up ties with major political figures such as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, the six-term House of Representatives member has also tried to deepen the Japan-U.S. alliance. Despite his hard-line image, the Kyoto native is regarded as a compassionate person as he has the experience of having lost his father by suicide when he was a junior high school student and having faced hard times before graduating from university. But some political observers said Maehara's leadership ability has been called into question in light of his past political career. In 2005 when the DPJ was a major opposition party, he became its president at the age of 43, but stepped down nearly seven months later over a fake e-mail fiasco involving a DPJ lawmaker. In March, he resigned as foreign minister over his receipt of an illegal donation from a Korean resident of Japan. Before entering the political world, he attended the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management, a political finishing school founded by Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of what is now Panasonic Corp. The institute is the alma mater of many Japanese politicians. He was elected to the Kyoto prefectural assembly at the age of 28, won a lower house seat for the now-defunct minor opposition Japan New Party in 1993 and co-founded the DPJ through a merger of opposition parties in 1998. Following the launch of the DPJ-led government in September 2009, Maehara, who is known as an avid railroad fan, first served as minister of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism before taking up the post of foreign minister in September 2010. (c) 2011 Kyodo News International, Inc. |