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Soundbite-savvy Koizumi expected to clinch victory

"Many young people like him -- his irreverence, his shooting from the lip, his youthful jaunt, his devil-may-care attitude."

Tom Plate, founder of the Asia Pacific Media Network

Not many world leaders would have the nerve to call US President George W. Bush "Beef Man."

That Junichiro Koizumi did symbolizes one reason Japan's ruling camp is expected to clinch a convincing victory in tomorrow's election -- the maverick prime minister is definitely different and a lot more fun than most Japanese politicians.

With both ruling and main opposition parties promising reforms, voters in tomorrow's general election will have to decide whether to put their faith in the eccentric, telegenic Koizumi or gamble on the less charismatic opposition leader, Naoto Kan. Surveys last weekend suggested the popular Koizumi's three-way coalition would win a comfortable majority in the first general election since he took office, and that his long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has a shot at a majority on its own.

If the LDP does perform well, much of its success can probably be chalked up to Koizumi's charm and the tough time Kan faces trying to click with the masses of uncommitted voters.

"Koizumi just says what he feels and his words strike a chord with people's hearts," said Junko Hirose, a researcher at Japan's National Diet Library.

"Kan says what he thinks," said Hirose, who like many of the uncommitted voters both parties are wooing is young and female.

Koizumi blurted out the "Beef Man" quip last month when he hosted Bush at a sumptuous multi-course meal that included Japanese beef, apparently at the US president's request.

Koizumi, 61, is a third-generation lawmaker and veteran of factional struggles in the LDP who relies heavily on Finance Ministry mandarins for advice.

He also has a mixed record on implementing reform pledges to cut public spending, fix the nation's ailing banks and privatize bloated government corporations.

Kan, the 57-year-old leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, is a former grassroots activist who has spent most of his career attacking the system from the opposition.

His uncovering of a scandal over HIV-tainted blood products as health minister in 1996 made Kan hugely popular at the time and he was often cited as voters' favorite for prime minister.

But seven years later, it's the soundbite-savvy Koizumi who has forged an image as both a maverick and reformer -- a persona the LDP hopes will carry the party to victory at the polls.

"Many young people like him -- his irreverence, his shooting from the lip, his youthful jaunt, his devil-may-care attitude," wrote Tom Plate, founder of the Asia Pacific Media Network.

"Japan's leading bachelor has his faults... but [being] boring, like his recent prime minister predecessors, is not one of them."

Koizumi stands out from the ranks of often drab LDP politicians, and has an edge on Kan partly because it's easier for a prime minister to get airtime.

It's not, though, just a matter of Koizumi's chic ties, silver mane of artificially waved hair and fondness for Elvis.

Koizumi's rock star lustre has faded since he took office in 2001, when teenage girls squealed and crowds jostled for a peek at the bachelor prime minister, a divorced father of three.

But he still has an instinct for grabbing the spotlight with adept political moves, such as a shock decision last month to tap youthful lawmaker Shinzo Abe as the LDP's de facto campaign manager, a post traditionally held by older party veterans.
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