Atitle in the Financial Times' Lex Column caught my eye Wednesday. The item, "Japan's Zombies," turned out to be a very readable story about large Japanese electronics companies. But until I got down to actually reading the piece, I was totally convinced it was about Japan's latest Cabinet.
We now have yet another prime minister and yet another Cabinet. But Yasuo Fukuda, the new prime minister, is someone who has been around for a very, very long time.
In fact, Fukuda holds the record for the longest-serving chief Cabinet secretary in history, a feat he accomplished during Junichiro Koizumi's reign as prime minister. At the age of 71, he cannot be considered particularly old by Japanese political standards, or even demographic standards for that matter. Yet he definitely gives the impression of being a throwback to the past, both in the fuzziness of his words and his all too dexterous juggling of power among the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's warring factions.