Exit Sato

What with the rough domestic and international weather that has hit the regime of Japan's Premier Eisaku Sato, 71, it has been clear for months that he has been waiting only for the proper moment to retire. Now that one of his central ambitions--the reversion of Okinawa to Japanese control--is an accomplished fact (TIME, May 22), Sato has evidently decided that the moment has come. The word is out in Tokyo that he will announce the close of his eight-year premiership to a caucus of his Liberal Democratic parliamentary majority late this week. He is expected to ask the party to convene a congress and to select a new leader who will become the Premier.

The recent controversies over domestic priorities and Japan's U.S.-oriented foreign policy have notably decreased Sato's ability to determine his successor. Foreign Minister Takeo Fukuda, whom Sato had groomed as the heir apparent, cut short a trip to Seoul scheduled for this week in order to be on hand for Sato's announcement. It will signal what promises to be a struggle for the succession among Fukuda and three rivals: Trade Minister Kakuei Tanaka, a construction millionaire who is the main threat to Fukuda's hopes, and two former Foreign Ministers, Masayoshi Ohira and Takeo Miki.

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