Japan's Unlikely Premier

Takeo Miki may be the least likely of Japan's twelve postwar Premiers. Unlike nearly all his predecessors, he did not attend a prestige, elitist school, but graduated from Tokyo's mediocre Meiji University (class of '37). Instead of working his way up through a government bureaucracy before entering Cabinet-level politics as most other Premiers did, Miki has spent his entire career as a legislator. Since 1937, he has won 14 consecutive elections to the Diet, in which he has represented his native Shikoku where he grew up as the only child of a moderately wealthy landowner. His public appearances are unimpressive, his speeches are dull, and he does not even engage in the martial sports or golf, which seem de rigueur for other Japanese political leaders. At the end of a hard day, he relaxes at home, sipping green tea with his wife Mutsuko.

These drab traits undoubtedly worked against Miki in 1968, 1970 and 1972 when he unsuccessfully campaigned to be party leader. But Miki has also long had the reputation of being an idealistic party reformer. Although it is suspected that he is not quite the "Mr. Clean" he claims to be, he has been untainted by the major scandals involving party fundraising. For this reason, Miki is a plausible choice to refurbish the Liberal Democrats' somewhat tarnished public image. He is also widely respected for his political hara (guts).

In 1938--with war already on the horizon--Miki staged a "Japan-U.S.

Friendship Meeting" in Tokyo, despite threats on his life from ultranationalists. He publicly argued that Japan should not go to war with the U.S., an attitude probably formed in part by the four years he spent studying at American universities. Although wartime Premier Hideki Tojo declared Miki an "undesirable candidate" in the 1942 elections, the voters of Shikoku sent him back to the Diet.

Thanks to his antiwar record, Miki was able to remain active in politics during the U.S. occupation. Since the war he has held ten Cabinet posts, serving competently, although demonstrating no particular brilliance. As Foreign Minister from 1966 to 1968, Miki developed the "Asia-Pacific Concept," which envisaged a more active role for Japan in regional affairs. The Ministry of Finance is the only important portfolio he has not held, which could be a serious liability as he tries to develop economic programs.

Despite his long public career, Miki has never clearly defined his political beliefs. When pressed, he declares that he is a "progressive conservative" and an advocate of "modernization," but does not explain what these terms mean. His main talent, perhaps, is an instinctive gift for discerning the moodo (mood) of his countrymen. Last summer, sensing the mounting furor over Tanaka's use of vast sums of money in political campaigns, Miki resigned as Deputy Premier and shrewdly began cultivating his image as a reformer. Considering the complex economic and political problems that confront Japan, though, Miki will need more than hara and an ability to perceive his nation's moodo if he expects to succeed as Premier.

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