TOKYO--When Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi reshuffled his cabinet
recently (Oct. 5),
he handed the obvious hot potato issue of Japan's worst-ever nuclear
disaster to Hirofumi Nakasone, 53, an Upper House lawmaker.
Does the name ring a bell? It should. The first-time cabinet member is
the eldest son of former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, sometimes
controversial politician whose premiership covered 1982-87 and included
development of a "Ron-Yasu" relationship with former U.S. President Ronald
Reagan.
As Japan's leader, Nakasone is remembered for attaching great
importance to the U.S.-Japan relationship.
In fact, the reason that the younger Nakasone occupies an Upper House
seat rather than the more important and prestigious Lower House seat is
that the "family seat" in Gunma Prefecture is still held by the elder
Nakasone, stubborn and prideful as well as respected at 81.
Obuchi, holder of another Gunma seat, laments that he was always "the
poor noodle shop owner" in the prefecture Power Game inside the Liberal
Democratic Party between "the two great cuisines" of Nakasone and the late
Takeo Fukuda, also a former prime minister.
Obuchi balanced the power situation perfectly by giving young Nakasone
a cabinet post and naming Fukuda's son-in-law Michio Ochi as Chairman of
the cabinet-level Financial Reconstruction Commission.
The Science and Technology Agency is in the spotlight after the recent
nuclear accident at a uranium processing plant in which 55 people were
exposed to radiation. Three are in critical condition.
As the government branch responsible for overseeing such facilities,
the agency is under fire for lax supervision and its handling of the
accident.
Nakasone pledged to do everything he could to determine the cause of
the accident, which he said had caused trouble and worry for both residents
in the town where the plant is located and people around Japan as well as
prevent a recurrence.
The company involved had a great responsibility for the accident,
"but we who supervise science policy must also take the issue very
seriously," he told a news conference following his appointment.
He added that it would also be his task to reassure the nation that
nuclear energy, which he termed essential for Japan's future, was safe.
Japan sees nuclear energy as important because it lacks natural
resources, and there are plans to build a further 20 reactors by 2010 to go
with the current 51.
Nakasone became policy chief for LDP members in the Upper House in
July 1998.
During the previous Diet session, which ended in August, he was
involved in pushing a number of parliamentarian-proposed bills, including
one that will create limits on dioxin emissions and punish dioxin polluters.
Two other issues on which young Nakasone has worked hard but gained
few headlines are support for daylight savings time and the campaign to
relocate Japan's capital away from Tokyo.
Nakasone will also serve as education minister and he has shown
that he has inherited his father's zest for administrative streamlining,
voicing his support for converting national universities into independent
public corporations.
The issue has been discussed as part of Obuchi's administrative reform
plan, under which the number of civil servants will be cut by 25 percent by
fiscal 2010, which begins in April that year.
Asked whether he feels English should be taught at the elementary
school level, the new minister said "the earlier the better for teaching a
language."
As for any problems associated with being the son of a famous father,
he said "I am totally an individual person and a lawmaker politically,
although I don't intend to stop anyone from looking at me as the son of
Yasuhiro Nakasone."
Edward Neilan (eneilan@crisscross.com) is a veteran journalist, based in Tokyo, who covers East Asia and writes weekly for World Tribune.com.