Internationally Honorable Premier

Here's another article on Mr. Miyazawa. He is said to have been so intelligent that he couldn't become a mainstream LDP powerbroker.

Former Japanese PM Miyazawa dies
By Michiyo Nakamoto in Tokyo
Published: June 28 2007 09:18 Last updated: June 28 2007 15:58

...Mr Miyazawa was a prominent figure in Japanese politics whose career spanned half a century from when he was first elected to the Diet in 1953 until he retired in 2003. His death marks the end of an era in which Japan emerged from the ruins of the second world war, grew to become the second largest economy in the world, and suffered a prolonged economic slump from which it only escaped as Mr Miyazawa was preparing to retire.

Mr Miyazawa, a lifelong liberal conservative, was highly respected in international circles. He held key positions from an early age, becoming the youngest head of the then Economic Planning Agency at 43. His political career is not only unusual for its length and breadth but also for the fact that he served as finance minister twice – once briefly in the late 1980s and again a decade later between 1998 and 2002 at the tail end of Japan’s so-called lost decade.

He was known as a skilled administrator and an internationalist and was one of the few Japanese leaders who could conduct meetings in English. “There is no doubt that he was a skilled administrator, but he never became a mainstream LDP powerbroker,” says Takao Toshikawa, editor of Insideline, a current affairs newsletter.

Consequently, despite his sparkling political career, Mr Miyazawa only managed to win the premiership in 1991, aged 72. His premiership was plagued by scandal and came to an abrupt end in 1993 when he was faced with an opposition vote of no confidence, which passed as a result of an internal revolt within the LDP.

That incident led to the formation of a coalition government, the first government not controlled by the LDP since 1955.

Mr Miyazawa returned to the spotlight six years later when he was appointed finance minister at a time when Japan was mired in a banking crisis and deflation. His appointment drew criticism. He had failed while prime minister to tackle effectively the problem of Japanese banks’ non-performing loans, even though he understood that bold banking reforms would be necessary to deal with the aftermath of Japan’s asset deflation.

It was only in 2001 that Mr Miyazawa made the bold statement that Japan’s finances were “approaching collapse” and that “fundamental fiscal reform was necessary”. In his final stint as finance minister, Mr Miyazawa tried to resuscitate the moribund economy and lift the slumping stock market with an expansionary policy.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007