Japan’s new Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has begun smoothening feathers ruffled in the neighbourhood by his predecessors, Shinzo Abe and Junichiro Koizumi. But what he

really needs is goodwill at home until he can lead his battered Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) into a snap poll, expected next year. Technically, Fukuda’s term as LDP president — and therefore as prime minister — will end on Sept. 30, 2009, but the government, ridden by corruption scandals and by bad blood in the neighbourhood, is not likely to last that long.

Jiro Yamaguchi, political scientist at the Hokkaido University, said that Fukuda’s is essentially a caretaker government that will prepare for snap elections. “It is to take place sooner or later so as to gain public confidence, especially after two prime ministers — Abe and Fukuda — have taken office without facing a general election,” said Yamaguchi. At his first press conference, after taking over as PM on Tuesday, Fukuda admitted half-jokingly that the LDP was a on a tight leash and “could lose governing power if we (the cabinet) make one false step”.

“First of all, we need to do our best to end the public distrust in politics,” said Fukuda hinting at the corruption scandals and resignations from cabinet that caused Abe’s resignation, after only a year in office, saying he had lost the trust of the people. “Otherwise, no matter how great the policies we talk about, the people will not trust us,” Fukuda said. Abe’s lack of leadership began to show up after the traumatic defeat in the July election of the Upper House of the Diet (parliament), where the LDP lost its majority. That put into jeopardy Abe’s plans to extend Japan’s logistical support provided to US naval fleets deployed in the Indian Ocean for the ‘war-on-terror’ in Afghanistan since 1991. It now falls on Fukuda to convince parliament to extend Japan’s naval mission in the Indian Ocean, comprising mainly refuelling operations, when a bill is introduced during the current session.

Yet in the new scheme of things, Fukuda’s best bet is to tap the pacifist legacy of his father, Takeo Fukuda, who was PM for two years from December 1976 and during whose tenure Japan and China signed a Peace and Friendship Treaty. The senior Fukuda is remembered best for a speech he made in Manila during his tour of South-east Asia in 1977, later called the ‘Fukuda Doctrine.’ He had pledged that Japan would never become a military power: it would form relationships of mutual confidence and trust with South-east Asian countries and cooperate with them as an equal partner.

There is also a palpable lack of enthusiasm in welcoming the new PM, or the cabinet mostly

inherited from his predecessor. According to media analyses there is frustration over the way ruling party leaders chose him behind the curtains.

“It is hard to see why the party had to choose him, not anyone else,” says one university student in Tokyo. “The process holds little accountability for his appointment.” The new premier badly needs to restore public confidence in his party and its policies. In the July elections, Japanese voters apparently also indicated anger at the alleged embezzlement of pension funds by government bureaucrats and a widening gap between the cities and rural areas and between the haves and have-nots. — IPS