DPJ SECRETARY-GENERAL
A veteran backroom fixer and the architect of the DPJ’s election victory, Ichiro Ozawa, 67, has already been chosen as the party’s next secretary-general.
Although not a Cabinet minister, Ozawa is expected to play a key role in the party’s election strategy ahead of upper house elections next year.
Ozawa started his political career with the LDP at age 27 and later became its secretary-general, the No. 2 post. He broke with the LDP in 1993 after a factional feud, a move that launched him on a trajectory that would earn him the moniker “The Destroyer” for his record of forging and wrecking parties and alliances.
Ozawa would have been headed for the prime minister’s job himself but was forced to step down as party chief in May, tainted by a donations scandal in which his top aide was indicted. The DPJ’s seismic election victory has raised his clout, especially among the more than 100 rookie lawmakers who have been dubbed “Ozawa’s children” and who owe their political careers to the master strategist.
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