Ex-finance minister takes helm of Japan's LDP

Posted: 28 September 2009 1452 hrs

TOKYO : Japan's conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) chose former finance minister Sadakazu Tanigaki as its new leader Monday as it struggles to rebuild itself after last month's crushing election defeat.

Tanigaki, 64 -- a known consensus builder and dove in foreign policy who has also held a number of other cabinet posts -- beat younger rivals Taro Kono and Yasutoshi Nishimura, both aged 46.

Tanigaki replaces Taro Aso, who stepped down as LDP president and prime minister after an August 30 election rout. The conservative party had been in power for more than half a century with only one interruption.

"I'm very conscious of the voice of the people which says our party has to reflect on our past conduct," Tanigaki said. "We need to return to the LDP's origins -- that politics is for the people.

"There is no time for us to sit and wait before we reform our party. We need drastic reforms," Tanigaki told his fellow LDP lawmakers after easily winning the party vote.

He took 300 votes against 144 for Kono and 54 for Nishimura, with one vote counted as invalid. In the ballot, LDP lawmakers cast 199 votes and party members 300.

The centre-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), after its landslide election win last month, has formed a coalition government with two small parties under Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

Hatoyama has vowed to steer Japan away from unrestrained capitalism toward a kinder society, promising cash allowances for child-raising, free high school education, a higher minimum wage and an end to highway tolls.

Tanigaki has argued that the LDP had failed to pay attention to those people who suffered because of the market-led reforms of former LDP premier Junichiro Koizumi, who ruled from 2001 to 2006.

He has advocated the idea of a "bond" or "kizuna" between people and argued that "within kizuna, each individual would be able to exert his talent so that local communities can be revitalised."

Tanigaki has also criticised the DPJ's "big government" style and questioned its ability to finance its bold campaign pledges, arguing that "Japan should seek a mid-sized government with mid-level welfare services."

Looking ahead to upper house polls in 2010 and elections in the years beyond, he said "the LDP's origin is its capacity to absorb voices from the grassroots... and if we rebuild it, I'm sure we will win again."

Tanigaki, the son of a former education minister and a graduate of the elite Tokyo University, became a lawmaker in 1983, having worked as a lawyer for several years.

His expertise in policy matters quickly drew media attention to Tanigaki, and political journalists in a magazine poll once ranked him as the third-most likely Japanese politician to be a strong leader in the 21st century.

In 2000 when senior LDP officials attempted to topple the government led by unpopular premier Yoshiro Mori, he joined a rebel movement which ended up in failure, but the move did no serious harm to his political career.

Since then he has held a number of crucial cabinet and party posts -- including finance minister from 2003 to 2006, land minister and minister in charge of corporate revitalisation.

Soft-spoken Tanigaki, who seeks closer ties with Asian countries, was a member of an association of lawmakers who supported the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, and one of the founders of an LDP study group on Asian diplomacy.

Tanigaki has said in the past that a Japanese prime minister should not visit the controversial Yasukuni war shrine in Tokyo which honours 2.5 million Japanese war dead and several convicted war criminals.

He is an avid cyclist and loves fine wines.

- AFP/so/ir