Looks like we know who the new prime minister will be.

Junichiro Koizumi won the primary elections in the race for leader of the LDP, Japan’s ruling political party. His “Change the LDP, Change Japan” campaign won over the party’s voters. The country is ready for a change.

Koizumi certain represents a change in personalities (just consider his fashion sense: he wears brown suits and his hair is unruly) but will he be able to change the LDP? It’s a sluggish monolith of a party plagues by financial scandals. It won’t be easy to change.

Koizumi’s appointment as PM be finalised until tomorrow, when the Diet (Japan’s parliment) casts its votes, but the leader of the ruling party is always voted in as Prime Minister, so there’s no guessing here. Posted by kuri at April 25, 2001 07:05 AM