Ichiro Ozawa

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Ichiro Ozawa (小沢一郎 Ozawa Ichirō, born 1942) is a Japanese politician, formerly a leader of the Liberal Democratic Party and later of the New Frontier Party and the Liberal Party. He is one of the most important figures in Japanese politics, involved in most of the key events of the past decade. He is currently the head of the leading opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan.

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[edit] Early career

Born on 24 May 1942 in Mizusawa, Iwate Prefecture, he attended Keio University, majoring in Economics. He was first elected to the Diet of Japan in 1969, becoming a strong supporter of Kakuei Tanaka and his faction. In the 1980s he became well known along with Tsutomu Hata and Ryutaro Hashimoto as the next generation of Tanaka/Takeshita faction leaders. His rivalry with Hashimoto was particularly prominent, dubbed the Ichi-Ryu War by the press.

After long service on key parliamentary committees, Ozawa's first ministerial appointment came in 1985, when he took on the Home Affairs portfolio under Yasuhiro Nakasone. Nakasone was impressed with his negotiation skills, particularly his ability to persuade opposition parties to pass difficult consumption tax legislation. These backroom skills led to Ozawa's election as LDP Secretary General in 1989.

Ozawa was a strong proponent of political reform, and he was frustrated by Japan's impotence in international affairs, represented particularly by the minor role Japan played in the Gulf War of 1990.

[edit] Split from the LDP

Ozawa's skill in behind-the-scenes maneuvers led to a meteoric rise in power within the LDP, however they also turned many other factions against him. Senior leaders resented having to appeal to the much younger Ozawa for support (Kiichi Miyazawa, twenty years his senior, once addressed Ozawa as "Great Secretary General" in a leadership meeting). Ozawa's reputation for organisation was soon matched by his reputation as a young upstart.

With rival factions turning on him, he began to draw more support from close ally Tsutomu Hata and his followers. Hata and Ozawa had been the leading reformers in the Takeshita faction, and had attached themselves to powerful patriarch Shin Kanemaru. When Kanemaru was implicated in a corruption scandal in 1992, it provided a line of attack against Ozawa. In 1993, realizing that Kanemaru's impending trial would provide ample ammunition for his critics, Ozawa made an unexpected move. He and Hata formed the splinter Japan Renewal Party, seriously destabilising the LDP and eventually ending its 38 year dominance of Japanese politics.

[edit] The Anti-LDP Coalition

Ozawa was extremely successful in luring LDP members to the Renewal Party, causing the LDP to lose its majority in the Diet. In keeping with his previous LDP role, Ozawa became the behind-the-scenes powerbroker of the large coalition that took power in the wake of the LDP split. While he and Hata were the most experienced administrators, they decided to name Morihiro Hosokawa, leader of the tiny Japan New Party, as coalition leader. This was done both as a gesture of neutrality to the other coalition members, and as a means of keeping Hata in the wings as a future option if Hosokawa proved unsuccessful.

While Hosokawa served as Prime Minister, Ozawa was recognised as the major political force in the coalition. He capitalised on his reputation in 1993 by publishing a clear statement of his principles in the book Blueprint for a New Japan (日本改造計画 Nihon Kaizō Keikaku). The book called for political, legal and military reform to transform Japan into what Ozawa called a "normal nation". Strong ideological consistency was uncommon in Japanese politicians, and the book had considerable impact both at home and abroad.

Ozawa's insistence on a more assertive role for Japan in international affairs caused friction with members of the Japan Socialist Party in the coalition. Eventually, the Socialists left to form a coalition with the LDP, leaving Tsutomu Hata in charge of a minority government that fell in June 1994. Many, including Hata, blamed Ozawa for the loss. Ozawa himself began to move into the public eye, especially with the arrival of the New Frontier Party.

Former Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu had founded the New Frontier Party in 1994. After joining the coalition, it became a catch-all party for the merger of several smaller parties. After a bitter leadership struggle in 1995 Ozawa took over the party , just as his old rival Ryutaro Hashimoto was assuming leadership of the LDP. Most commentators believed that a new Ichi-Ryu War would finally provide a genuinely competitive two-party system in Japanese politics. Unfortunately, the New Frontier Party was already beginning to unravel.

[edit] The Liberal Party

Ozawa's autocratic leadership style had alienated many of his former allies. Even Tsutomu Hata, disillusioned after his leadership battle with Ozawa, seceded to form the Sun Party in 1996. By 1998 so many had abandoned Ozawa that he announced the dissolution of the New Frontier Party, taking his remaining followers to found the Liberal Party.

The Liberal Party formed a coalition with the LDP, and Keizo Obuchi began negotiating a future remerger. The idea of Ozawa returning was met with mixed reaction in the LDP. The YKK partnership of Taku Yamasaki, Junichiro Koizumi and Koichi Kato were strongly opposed to Ozawa, along with anti-reformer Hiromu Nonaka. Powerful faction leader Shizuka Kamei supported Ozawa, chiefly due to similar views on military reform. Eventually, Ozawa's enemies were successful in blocking the merger.

[edit] Merger with DPJ

Shut out of the LDP, in 2003 Ozawa and his party joined with the Democratic Party of Japan, reuniting with his old ally Tsutomu Hata. Ozawa was elected head of the party in April 7, 2006, after the resignation of Seiji Maehara.

[edit] Controversy

Due to his strong ideological stances, Ozawa has been the subject of much controversy. Critics accuse him of being an opportunist, and point to his repeated party movements. His defenders say that in the relatively ideology-free landscape of Japanese politics, it is his adherence to principle that forces him into conflict with others.

In 2004, Ozawa was affected by the Pension Scandal. While cleared of any legal wrongdoing, he stepped down from the DPJ leadership elections, in which he had been unopposed. This forced Katsuya Okada to assume leadership of the party.

Ozawa's frequent public statements regarding the normalisation of Japan's military and his statements on nuclear weapons have been criticised in the media, especially in China.

[edit] Further reading

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