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Younger leaders for Japan
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October 31, 1996: 1:12 p.m. ET
The political players are changing as the country undergoes evolution
From Correspondent Bill Dorman
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TOKYO (CNNfn) - Change is slowly coming to the world of Japanese politics.
While the country's political system undergoes evolution, the political players are also changing -- and it's often a matter of age.
Think of Japanese politicians as the 70-somethings and the 50-somethings. The changing of the guard underway is bringing with it a change of perceptions and a gradual shift of priorities.
You can see the shift in Prime Minister Hashimoto's Liberal Democratic Party -- in the way the LDP's leadership is getting younger. (126K WAV) or (126K WAV)
The shift may also have diplomatic implications. The generation of former prime ministers such as Nakasone and Takeshita remember the immediate post-war era of a devastated Japan recovering with the help of the United States.
Yoshio Okawara spent more than four decades in Japan's Foreign Service, including five years as ambassador to the United States.
"Those younger generations are much freer in their attitude and thinking. They have no obligation to the past," Okawara said.
"These are men who feel that Japan has done very well, it's done it itself, thank you very much, and we're not beholden," business consultant James Abegglen said. "That's an enormous difference. I don't think the U.S. in its interactions with Japan has been at all sensitive or responsive to that change."
And that change is likely to continue slowly -- whether the next leader of the United States is a 50-something or a 70-something.
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