Famous People: Koizumi Junichiro:

After the disaster of Yoshiro Mori's ill-fated reign as Prime Minister for just a year from April 2000 to April 2001, along came a leader that broke the mould in the world of Japanese politics. For years Japan had seen a series of bland, faceless leaders bereft of personality and often the ability to lead Japan forward after the boom of the 1980's had come to an end.

Koizumi is regarded as something of an oddity in Japanese politics, from his family life, to his hobbies, to his hairstyle and tough-talking manner, he does not fit the mould of a typical Japanese politician. He is a single father, divorced over 20 years ago, he won custody of his two sons. He has remained single and has vowed to never marry again. He attends all official, and non-official functions without a female 'companion' and has seemingly been untainted thus far by any accusations of bribery. (For which has brought down many politicians in the past).

He likes to listen to rock music, opened a museum to a guitarist with a hugely popular rock band, and has a CD featuring his favorite tracks by Elvis Presley - things you would have associated more with a European or American leader. He also gets his long, grey locks slightly permed - at 8,000 Yen a time. Within political circles, he is known as 'henjin' or weirdo, but this is more to do with the way he presents himself rather than his political acumen.

An economics graduate of Keio University, Koizumi has a wealth of political experience begining his career back in 1970. He had already served in four cabinets as Parliamentary Finance Vice Minister, Post and Telecommunications Minister, and Health, Labor and Welfare Minister before he became Prime Minister. As with the vast majority of politicians in Japan, it was a profession that ran in the family. Both his father and grand-father held prominent positions in the past, Minister of Defence and Vice Speaker in the House of Representatives resepctively.

When he took office his popularity ratings stood at around 90%. He was a breath of fresh air for Japanese politics with his pledge to appoint people on merit, rather than according to their position within the party hierarchy and how long they'd been with the party. Koizumi appointed 5 women and 3 non-politicians (both records) to his inaugral cabinet, which achieved a popularity rating of over 85%.

He said at the time that "I want to appoint those who are zealous about reform," and was praised for appointing outspoken Makiko Tanaka to the Foreign Ministry in 2001. (more on her fate later). He pushed for new ways to revitalise the economy, aiming to act against bad debts with commercial banks, privatise the postal savings system, and abolish the factional structure of the LDP. He spoke of the need for a period of painful restructuring in order to improve the future.

Achieving those goals has proved difficult and he has seen his stock falling for quite some time. It has certain been painful. Only recently, towards the end of 2003, are we seeing any real signs of economic recovery. Also, his planned reform of the LDP has not materialized and reform was resisted by LDP factions. He sacked the popular Foreign Minister Tanaka Makiko in January 2002, replacing her with Kawaguchi Yoriko and his popularity rating fell to an all-time low of 40%.

He showed the other side of his liberal character in 2001 by a controversial visit to the Yasukuni Shrine on August 13, 2001. The famous Tokyo shrine is where Japan's war dead are honored, including a number of convicted war criminals. Vocal protests from thousands of Japanese, as well as a number of foreign countries including Korea and China, did not stop him making the visit again in 2002 and 2003.

In between these visits he did make a more positive, landmark visit to North Korea in 2002, which led to the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Diplomatic relations have soured since then after the North Korea admitted it kidnapped Japanese nationals in the 1970's and 80's and Koizumi was criticized in some quarters on his handling of the affair.

It has to be said that although he has not achieved all the changes or progress that he promised at the start of his leadership, gradually the economy is beginning to turn around, and Koizmumi is expected to win elections that are coming up in November. He refers to himself as a 'kakumei no hito' or revolutionary. I'm not sure he's done anything revolutionary in Japanese politics but has been different enough from the leaders of the past to stand out, and perhaps, make a difference.

Superstitions: Cutting nails at night

Everybody has to cut their nails and one time or another, unless you bite yours, but we won't go into that. Nowadays it's taken for granted that it's perfectly safe to cut your nails with scissors or a nail clipper. However, hundreds of years ago, you couldn't just flick a switch to have instant light in the evening. This made doing some activities, such as cutting nails at night more dangerous because of the lack of light, which is where the superstition grew from.

The Japanese saying is, 'yoru ni tsume wo kiru to hayaji ni suru' which translates as, 'if you cut your nails at night you will die early'. This is actually a play on words because cutting nails at night 'yotsume', sounds very similar to 'yo wo tsumeru' which means to cut life short.

Another version is that if you cut your nail at night you won't be with your parents when they pass away (basically, you will die before them), or that you won't be able to see your parents when they pass away.

The superstition was mainly used to scare people into not cutting their nails at night and avoid injuries to fingers and toes, especially among children.

Next time: What your blood type means to Japanese poeple........!

Japanese Customs: Shoes and slippers

There are many customs that most Japanese will forgive for not knowing as a naive 'gaikokujin'. There is one however that they won't, and that's wearing shoes in a Japanese home. Every single home in Japan, even the tiny one room rabbit hutches will have a small area as you go in called a 'genkan' or entrance hall. This is where you MUST TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES. Failure to do so could result in a slow, painful death, or alternatively a scolding from whoevers house you entered. This is deep-rooted custom and one that is not likely to change for many, many years.

You will nearly always be provided with slippers to wear around the house, or you must walk around in your socks/bare feet, so make sure that your socks are clean! Try and avoid stepping in the genkan with your bear/stocking feet before stepping into the house. This can take some practice to manouver smoothly between the genkan and the house whilst taking off and putting on shoes/slippers.

If you work at or visit a school you will probably have to take off your shoes before you enter. Other places that require this are Japanese restaurants (izakaya), ryokan, temples and some hospitals. If you see a large shoe locker as you go in, and lots of cheap, plastic slippers in front of you, you know what to do. When trying on clothes in a clothing store you should remove your shoes before entering the changing room.

Most places which require you to wear slippers will also have a special set of slippers for when you use the bathroom - and these will be in the toilet/bathroom. Also remember NOT to wear any slippers when you in a tatami room as they damage the fibres. Leave the shoes on the outside of the room. On my first to Japan I failed to do this and got a very stern look from my host. It was only later that I realised what I'd done.

This is one Japanese custom that you'll get used to in no time and I found when I returned home for a holiday that I was always taking my shoes off before I entered people's houses, which was not a custom where I come from.

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