小泉政権は超タカ派右翼政権となった。
小泉の言う改革とは
国民に苛酷な犠牲を強制するものだ。
新手の奴隷使いがマスコミを手先に登場したのである。

２００１−４−２５ 総裁選終盤に、森首相や小泉氏と会談するなど暗躍ぶりが際立っていた中曽根氏。８２歳と高齢ながら、その血なまぐささは相変わらずだ。その中曽根氏が、小泉氏を支持した狙いがここにきて、はっきりしてきた。 　一つは、「橋本派支配」の打倒だ。ある永田町事情通は「中曽根氏も橋本派の前身である田中派の支援で政権をつくりました。でも、中曽根氏は自分は故田中角栄元首相とは対等の関係にあったが、その後の政権は、田中派をのっとった竹下派に完全に従属した内閣だったと思っている」と解説する。この点で、竹下派支配に抵抗して「ＹＫＫ」を結成した小泉氏と共通した考えを持っている。 　そして、もう一つは亀井氏を斬り捨てることだった。亀井氏の今回の総裁選出馬は、中曽根氏に強くせっつかれたからだった。江藤・亀井派の常任最高顧問である中曽根氏は、亀井氏の派閥での影響力増大を苦々しく思っていた。亀井氏の弟分である平沼赳夫経済産業相も、亀井氏が上にいる限り、総裁候補になれない焦りがあり、中曽根氏とつるんだという見方が有力だ。 　ある自民党関係者は「中曽根氏は、亀井氏が総裁選で惨敗することを見込んで、出馬をけしかけた可能性が強い。もともと亀井氏を斬り捨てるつもり魂胆だったんです。そして予備選での亀井氏不振の状況をみて、小泉氏支持を打ち出し、亀井氏を本選辞退に追い込んでメンツを丸つぶれにしたんです」と解説する。 　「小泉政権」で中曽根氏の影響力が極めて強くなりそうなことは、小泉氏が平沼氏を政調会長に起用しようとしたことでもわかる。「派閥政治」の打破を掲げる小泉氏が、江藤・亀井派会長の江藤隆美元総務庁長官を通さずに、直接、平沼氏に電話で打診を行い、江藤氏が激怒した。結局、平沼氏起用の話はつぶれたが、小泉氏が中曽根氏にかなり配慮していることがうかがわれる。

もう一人、大きな影響力をふるいそうなのが、首相在任中に失言・失態を演じ続け、自民党をドン底に突き落とした森首相だ。橋本派の野中広務前幹事長が総裁選の敗北責任で“失脚”したため、公明党とのパイプ役は森首相が果たすのではないかとみられる。 　そして、森首相と中曽根氏がつるんで加藤氏の復権阻止に動いている。森首相は、昨年１１月の「加藤の乱」を当然忘れることはできない。中曽根氏はもともと国家観などで、加藤氏を認められない。加藤氏は「小泉政権」での復権を目指しており、重要閣僚入りもうわさされたが、まだ「冬の時代」を余儀なくされることになりそうだ。 　中曽根氏の影響力が強い「小泉政権」はかなりタカ派色の強い性格になりそうだ。小泉氏は靖国神社の公式参拝を明言しているが、２４日の総裁就任後初の記者会見では、憲法９条の改正問題について、「将来、改正すべきだと思っている。自衛隊は軍隊ではないという部分は不自然だ」と、改正の方向を明確に打ち出した。 　靖国神社の公式参拝は正論だが、アジア諸国の反発が起きるのは必至。また、入閣候補として、平沼氏や町村信孝文部科学相らタカ派の名前がとりざたされているほか、あの真紀子氏の入閣も確実で、舌禍事件が極めて警戒される内閣になりそうだ。

ワシントンポストも目新しいネタは持っていないようだ。 2001Apr24. A Balancing Act for Koizumi Japan's New Leader Needs Support of System He Has Shunned TOKYO, April 24 -- Junichiro Koizumi was eligible for a rarefied club in 1997. After 25 years in parliament, his seniority would be recognized with a formal ceremony, a certificate, a $3,000 monthly stipend to take a sleek, black limousine to work, and a fancy oil portrait to be hung in the halls of the legislature. And for Koizumi, elected today to head Japan's ruling party and become the next prime minister, that recognition had special meaning. His father and grandfather had achieved the quarter-century milestone; they would be the first three-generation trio to do it. But Koizumi refused the honor. The money was better spent elsewhere, he said. In Japan, where such snubs of convention are taken seriously, his contrarian act caused a fuss and burnished his reputation as an oddball Diet member. But it is this prickly independence that has captured the mood of the times and propelled Koizumi suddenly and unexpectedly into the prime minister's job. Koizumi, 59, acknowledged his surprise after his first-round victory today to win the presidency of the Liberal Democratic Party by a vote of 298 to 155. He will be installed as prime minister Thursday, succeeding the widely criticized Yoshiro Mori. "I was elected as the president of the LDP as a result of unexpected events, one after another," he said at his first news conference after his election. "I think this can be called a peaceful revolution." Political experts cautiously agreed, though they are waiting for Koizumi's first cabinet and party appointments this week to see if he will keep his pledge to reject the Liberal Democratic factions in favor of a more open government. It is a crucial decision for Koizumi: Without the factions' support, his ability to get things done will be limited; but if he courts their support, he will shatter his reformist campaign pledges. "He will have to strike a balance that is very difficult," said political analyst Hirotada Asakawa. "If he compromises, he will be criticized by the people who supported him, and the sense of disappointment will surround him." Koizumi's sudden rise at the expense of the party's political bosses, who had picked former prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto for the job, was an indication of the pent-up frustration among Japanese voters. "The voters were being pushed into a corner. They are fed up, and this was the last chance for the party to overcome that," said Makiko Tanaka, the daughter of a renowned party boss but a sharp-tongued party critic. That message was shouted from every recent public opinion poll. Mori's popularity declined inexorably during his year in office, bottoming out at an abysmal 7 percent. Only a slightly greater proportion approved of his Liberal Democratic-dominated cabinet. Overwhelmingly, voters picked "none of the above" when asked to choose their favorite party. The president of the Liberal Democratic Party is not elected through a popular vote. But those who worked in the political trenches outside the capital heard the message, and they saw in it potential doom for the old party, already forced into a three-party coalition to retain its half-century grip on power. They were adamant: The voters would punish the Liberal Democrats if the party chieftains in Tokyo again used the kind of backroom deals that had led to Mori's selection. And voters would get their chance in just three months, when half of the members of the upper house of parliament would be up for election. Public opinion polls showed a preference for Koizumi far above that for Hashimoto. And for the party officials in the prefectures, Koizumi had just the kind of credentials they wanted. He had a history of bold stands that made his calls for reform believable, and yet he had proven his desire to remain in the party for nearly three decades. Never mind that some of his policies -- a cap on government spending for public works projects and economic contraction if needed to squeeze out bad loans -- are anathema to most of the party's policymakers. "The thing that people are really upset about is not policy, but process," said Steven R. Reed, a professor of modern government at Chuo University. "They want less smoke-filled rooms, less backroom deals, more open doors. It's happening in Japan, and it's happening elsewhere in the world." Koizumi, he said, happened to be "the right man in the right place at the right time." "There is a degree of randomness to this process," Reed said. "There are others who could have filled the role. Even Hashimoto has a good record of accomplishment. But it's not policy. It's who gets the mantle of reformer." Koizumi seized it as someone who had challenged a pillar of the party. He had long called for privatization of the national post office; he had even written four books about it. The postmasters who work in thousands of small towns have long been an important cog in the Liberal Democrats' machinery in the countryside, and Koizumi's plan put him at odds with the party hierarchy. For years, Koizumi was considered outside the mainstream of power, destined by his stance on that issue to remain out of the loop. But those who know him say he was unbothered. "He doesn't bend. He doesn't compromise. He's very true to himself," said Kiyoshi Takeuchi, a political colleague of Koizumi and his father. Koizumi's grandfather was deputy speaker of the lower house of parliament and his father was defense minister. Both were elder players in the party. When his father died in 1969, Koizumi stepped forward to run for his Diet seat. But Koizumi soon set himself apart from his forebears. He shunned the glad-handing that is a staple of most politicians' lives. He had little taste for political camaraderie. Even though he represented Yokosuka, only 30 miles from Tokyo, he rarely returned to his district to ask for votes. "We have a politically mature city," said Kazuhiko Ozawa, chairman of the Yokosuka Chamber of Commerce and a childhood friend of Koizumi. "We don't ask him to do pork-barrel politics. He doesn't have to come back here to attend to every marriage and funeral." He kept his hair long -- water-cooler chatter pegs him as "the Japanese Richard Gere" -- and often wears light-colored suits and bold ties that set him apart from the cookie-cutter dark blue suits of most politicians. Even his marital status is unusual. In 1978, when he was 36, he married the granddaughter of a pharmaceutical company founder. She was 14 years younger. They had a big political wedding, with 2,500 guests at the Tokyo Prince Hotel. But four years later the marriage ended, and Koizumi is one of only a few public figures to have divorced and remained single. The couple had three sons; his wife was pregnant with the third when they separated. They are now 18, 19 and 22. ３人目を妊娠中に？ Koizumi was once asked by a monthly magazine why he did not remarry. "Because I don't ever want to get divorced again. If the energy required to get married is one, then the energy required to get divorced is 10," he told Seiron magazine in 1998. "If you don't want to get divorced, it is better that you don't marry." He takes much the same attitude in his relationships with other politicians. "He doesn't want to be in the debt of others," said Takayoshi Miyagawa, a political analyst. "Japan is a gift-giving society, but he's known as a politician who will refuse a gift and even send it back. "He doesn't take a limo. He'll go in a regular taxi. Most politicians always go to a meeting with some aides; he comes alone," Miyagawa said. "If he goes to have a drink, he's very strict about taking turns paying. "I think the Japanese people, even if they don't really know him very well, feel this difference," Miyagawa said. "That's why he's popular." c 2001 The Washington Post Company an indication of the pent-up frustration among Japanese voters. 日本の有権者の間の閉じ込められたフラストレーションの指示でした。

小泉新総裁選出へ、亀井陣営と政策基本合意 ０１−４−２４ 自民党総裁選は２４日、国会議員を交えた本選を行い、小泉純一郎氏を第２０代総裁に選出する。小泉氏は党３役人事を２５日までに行い、自公保３党の政権協議に臨む方針だ。２６日、国会で首相指名を受け、同日中に新内閣を発足させる。また本選を辞退するかどうかが注目されている亀井静香氏をめぐっては、江藤・亀井派と小泉氏陣営が２３日夜、実務者レベルの政策協議を行い、基本的に合意。江藤・亀井派は亀井氏の辞退問題について大詰めの調整を続けた。

Japanese maverick grabs reins Jonathan Watts in Tokyo Wednesday April 25, 2001 The Guardian Junichiro Koizumi, a reformer promising tough love for Japan, is to be the next prime minister after a surprise victory yesterday in voting for the leadership of the conservative ruling party. Defying all predictions, the former health minister rode a wave of popular support to overwhelm the traditionally powerful factional interests represented by his three rivals for the presidency of the Liberal Democratic party (LDP). Guaranteed the post of prime minister by the ruling coalition's majority in parliament, he will inaugurate a cabinet tomorrow that is expected to be the youngest and most reform-minded that Japan has seen in decades. He has also pledged to push aggressive reforms of the banking system, cap the issuance of government bonds and break up the LDP's factions. Mr Koizumi, 59, is an immensely popular politician whose selection is likely to boost the ratings of the LDP in the upper house election in July. In opinion polls, 51% of floating voters said they wanted him as head of the ruling party. "At last we have a real leader," one woman told a local television station. In primaries leading up to yesterday's election, Mr Koizumi swept 123 of the 141 regional votes that were at stake, making it politically impossible for the party's grandees to deny him victory. In the final count, which included a poll of MPs, he won 293 votes, putting him far ahead of his next closest rival, the former prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, with 155. "It is unbelievable that I received such huge support," he said after the victory. "It is the individual citizens who moved politics." "It is my responsibility to rebuild the party so that we can say with confidence that the LDP will change Japan and move ahead with major reforms." Mr Koizumi cuts an unusually colourful figure in the grey world of Japanese politics. Compared to the cheap suits and short-back-and-sides hairstyles that are alomst de rigueur among LDP members, Japan's new leader is a sharp dresser with long grey permed hair. A divorcee, who has two sons from a marriage with a woman 14 years his junior, "Jun-chan" as he is nicknamed, lists his hobbies as skiing, movies, Kabuki and singing karaoke. As a well known fan of an outlandishly dressed pop group, X-Japan, he helped to set up a memorial museum for the band's lead singer, who committed suicide. His policies, particularly his advocacy of privatising Japan's huge postal savings network, have also earned him the reputation as a political punk inside the LDP: the party gets much of its money and support from the postal lobby. "Jun-chan is a little different from your run-of-the mill politician. He doesn't make decisions based on personal interests. He is a politician who respects theories and logic," said one of the other three leadership candidates, Shizuka Kamei, before dropping out and throwing his support behind Mr Koizumi. "He may prove to be a tough character on the international scene."

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３０歳（昭和４７年）で初当選した小泉氏が、１３歳年下の２２歳で青山学院大４年生（当時）のＫ子さんと結婚したのは昭和５３年。Ｋ子さんはエスエス製薬創業者、泰道照山氏の孫娘。媒酌人に福田赳夫元首相夫妻を迎え、披露宴には政財界の大物ら約２５００人が出席。 　２人は国会議事堂をかたどったケーキにナイフを入れたが、結婚生活はわずか４年で破たん。２人の男の子は小泉氏が引き取った。当時、離婚原因について根強くささやかれたのが「嫁と姑・小姑の対立」説。 　「代議士の妻だった母、父の代から秘書を務めていた姉、家の中の面倒を見ていた次姉のなかに嫁が入っていけば苦労しないわけがない。小泉氏が母や姉に口答えできず、妻が苦しむ姿を見て、“結婚アレルギー”になってしまったのではないか」（政界事情通） 　以来、独身を通している小泉氏。再婚しない理由には、「結婚するエネルギーを１とすると、離婚はその１０倍。あの苦しみは味わいたくない」とことあるごとに公言しているほどだ。

Maverick Set to Be Japanese Premier Populist Revolt Shakes Ruling Party Tuesday, April 24, 2001 TOKYO, April 24 (Tuesday) -- Junichiro Koizumi, a wavy-haired rock music fan who relishes his image as a lone wolf, will claim the job of Japan's prime minister after defeating the ruling party's political machine today in a populist revolt. The election of Koizumi, 59, to head the governing Liberal Democratic Party, and thus become prime minister Thursday, could serve as a death knell for the old-style faction politics by which the party has ruled Japan for nearly 46 years, some political observers say. "I pledged that I am going to change LDP and change Japan," Koizumi said after the vote, speaking passionately without notes. "Now I feel a very heavy responsibility to do that." Dressed in a light gray suit and emerald green tie, Koizumi bowed to the party members, then led them in the traditional campaign cheer. The political and economic reforms he vowed to pursue are being watched nervously in the country's financial and political establishments. On the campaign trail he pledged to tackle the bad bank loans that have stalled the world's second-largest economy and he raised the possibility of Japan incurring a couple of years of contraction at a time when the U.S. economy is sputtering -- a somber prospect for the world economy. His promises to revamp Japan's static political system are just as far-reaching and have been dubbed "Koizumi's Revolution" by the Japanese press. He has said he will pack his cabinet with "more young people, more people from the private sector and more women," shunning the traditional political reward system for veteran parliamentary faction leaders. Koizumi claimed the LDP presidency in voting at the party headquarters. The party leaders watched glumly from the audience as parliament members and local party leaders capped the groundswell that rebuffed the choice of national party bosses and gave the self-styled reformer a first-round voting victory. Koizumi won 298 of the party's 487 votes, easily defeating former prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, who got 155 votes. Koizumi rode a surge of victories in local party primaries, which carried additional weight in this national party presidential ballot and fueled the support of some rank-and-file parliament members, who had favored Hashimoto. "The magma is moving," Koizumi said Monday. "Something is happening the party members could never imagine: People are driving the LDP members, and the LDP members are driving the party. That is a total reversal of the past." Koizumi's proposals appeal to younger party members who fear voter wrath from a public that gives the Liberal Democrats' current leader, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, a 7 percent approval rating. After a year in office marked mostly by verbal embarrassments, Mori will step down Thursday and Koizumi will form a new cabinet. But Koizumi will face a daunting task of fulfilling his promises without the cooperation of the party factions that he ran against, according to analysts. And he has little time to do it: A serious defeat for the ruling party in July's scheduled upper house election might require him to resign. "He's isolated. He has no backup team. It's inevitable he will be a short-timer," predicted analyst Minoru Morita. "He's got a 50-50 chance of either being a giant or of ending his political career in 100 days," said Masayuki Fukuoka, professor of politics at Hakuo University. In the economic sector, Koizumi also has promised to limit the huge Japanese bond debt incurred for public works projects and to privatize the post office -- all without a tax increase. Politically, he has said he will work for direct popular election of the prime minister and open primaries to encourage newcomers to run. On each of these proposals, Koizumi faces entrenched and powerful interest groups inside and outside the national assembly, or Diet. "Koizumi is going to hit a wall higher than Mount Everest," predicted Shigezo Hayasaka, a former political insider who is now an analyst. "He is powerless. As a result of his election, the core power of the LDP is dismantling. And without that, I think the LDP has entered an era of chaos." "He's like a mini-Gorbachev," said Morita, speaking of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. "He wants to make big changes in the party to save it, but it won't work." But others think Koizumi might ride his slogans of party reform to success. "The wind of change is blowing in the LDP," said Fukuoka. "The polls show more than 70 percent of the people of Japan want a change. That's important. I think he can make a difference." Those polls helped create the stampede for Koizumi. Although two weeks ago Hashimoto apparently had sewn up the support of enough faction leaders in the Diet to ensure his selection, the promises began to crumble. Younger legislators threatened to rebuff the orders of their faction leaders, and party members in Japan's 47 prefectures wrested additional votes in the party's election away from the Diet members who traditionally control party selections. The prefectures held primaries last week, and victories began piling up for Koizumi over the weekend. By tonight, he had won 123 of the 147 votes allocated to the prefectures, and the prospect of party leaders bucking the popular will by anointing Hashimoto became untenable. Oddly, Koizumi comes to his role as a reformer with establishment credentials. His father and grandfather were elders of the Diet; when his father, Junya Koizumi, died in 1969, the young Koizumi left the London School of Economics to run for the seat. From before his first election in 1972 to the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Diet, Koizumi served in the Liberal Democratic Party for more than three decades, holding a variety of party positions and two cabinet-level posts without making any particular mark. Despite that record, he had long carved out for himself a reputation as something of a maverick. He shuns many of the financial favors that flow to Diet members, earning a reputation as a clean figure. "When he comes over to my house, he brings a box lunch so he won't be beholden to me for a meal," said one friend. His outsider image extends to his style. While Japanese politicians have long favored a shiny, slicked-back hairdo, Koizumi keeps his graying locks in an ebullient wave -- "Beethovenian," as the Wall Street Journal described it. And instead of sappy karaoke, Koizumi is an ardent fan of a pop group called Japan X, which delivers rock and ballads adored by schoolgirls. Descriptions of him often include the word "eccentric." Others say he barely tolerates the late-night drinking sessions in which political plots usually are hatched and executed. He is not shy about criticizing his colleagues publicly, a habit that supporters call "straightforward." Special correspondent Shigehiko Togo contributed to this report.

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