Dodo Taru Seiji, (Politics with Dignity)

Shincho Shinsho, April 2008, 190 pages. Price: ¥680. ISBN-13: 978 – 4106102578

Review by Fumiko Halloran

Kaoru Yosano expresses his confidence that American influence in world affairs will not decline but he warns that the rest of the world should not expect the US to solve every problem. He believes there is a lot in common between the US and Japan in values and ways of thinking.

Kaoru Yosano, born in 1938 to a diplomatic family, lived in Beijing before World War II, returned to Tokyo and was evacuated to Karuizawa during the war, and moved to Egypt with his father in 1953 where he studied at the English School in Cairo. At the age of 15 from Japan, a defeated nation, and surrounded by students from Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Africa, Yosano promised himself he would help build Japan into a first rate economic and cultural nation.

Graduating from Tokyo University Faculty of Law, in 1963 Yosano joined Nihon Genshiryoku Hatsuden (The Japan Atomic Power Company) on the recommendation of Yasuhiro Nakasone, then a promising young politician. Later Yosano was exposed to politics as Nakasone’s aide. He ran for House of Representatives from a Tokyo district in twelve elections, winning nine and losing three. He served as Minister of Culture and Education, Minister of International Trade and Industry, Chairman of the LDP Policy Research Council, and Special Minister of Economic & Financial Policy in the Koizumi cabinet, and as Chief Cabinet Secretary in Prime Minister Shintaro Abe’s cabinet. In a cabinet reshuffle in July 2008, Prime Minister Fukuda appointed Yosano as Special Minister of Economic & Fiscal Policy and Regulatory Reform.