Yuriko Koike, a former defense minister, has launched a bid to become Japan's first female Prime Minister. Her reason for running? That because of her outsider status she is the only one capable of bringing the kind of change that Japan's government needs.
"In American terms, I am not much of a Washington insider," she said in an interview with Reuters. "I can make decisions that need to be made," said Koike, "the 'Old Boys club' can't do that. That's what has delayed change in Japan." The last two Prime Ministers have been forced to quit after failing to break the deadlock of a parliament divided between rival political parties. This leads some political observers to think that there might be a shake up of the political parties, with factions splitting off to form new alliances. Koike said that she would be best suited to put together a new ruling coalition.
Koike, meanwhile is playing down any comparisons to Republican Vice President candidate Sarah Palin, but in another odd parallel to our own election, one of the other candidates for the PM spot in Japan, Ichiro Ozawa, is running on a platform of "the people's livelihood first". Kinda sounds like the Republican's tagline "Country First", doesn't it?
No comments:
Post a Comment