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Koizumi becomes Japan's third-longest serving PM

Junichiro Koizumi became Japan's third-longest serving prime minister since World War II yesterday, presiding over an economic recovery but letting relations deteriorate with Asian neighbors.

Koizumi, whose flamboyant style has broken the mould of Japanese politics, as of yesterday had been premier for 1,806 days, the same as Yasuhiro Nakasone who served from 1982 to 1987.

"The reason why a mediocre person like me could manage to do the prime minister's job so long is because of the cooperation of the Japanese people and luck," Koizumi told reporters in his trademark tongue-in-cheek humor.

Koizumi, 64, plans to retire in September, despite remaining popular and winning a landslide in last year's election he cast as a battle to break up the post office monopoly and shake up the economy.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, a frontrunner to be the next premier, said on Tuesday that Koizumi's long tenure "must be a result of offering clear policy objectives and explaining them to people in a plain language."

But the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's best-selling daily newspaper, questioned whether Koizumi should get credit for the economy, which a slew of data show to be rebounding from more than a decade of zero or negative growth.

"It's true the economy recovered in the past five years of the Koizumi Cabinet. But is it the result of `reform?'" said a Yomiuri editorial, which credited efforts by the private sector.

It faulted Koizumi for his annual pilgrimage to the Yasukuni shrine, which honors Japanese war dead including war criminals. China has refused dialogue with Koizumi due to the shrine, which it considers a symbol of militarism.

"The prime minister's obsession with the pilgrimage to Yasukuni shrine has led to worsening relationships with China and South Korea. As a result, Japan cannot operate a strategic Asian diplomacy," it said.
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