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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 10 TOKYO 002934 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR E, P, EB, EAP/J, EAP/P, EAP/PD, PA 
WHITE HOUSE/NSC/NEC; JUSTICE FOR STU CHEMTOB IN ANTI-TRUST 
DIVISION; TREASURY/OASIA/IMI/JAPAN; DEPT PASS USTR/PUBLIC AFFAIRS 
OFFICE; SECDEF FOR JCS-J-5/JAPAN, 
DASD/ISA/EAPR/JAPAN; DEPT PASS ELECTRONICALLY TO USDA 
FAS/ITP FOR SCHROETER; PACOM HONOLULU FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY 
ADVISOR; CINCPAC FLT/PA/ COMNAVFORJAPAN/PA. 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OIIP KMDR KPAO PGOV PINR ECON ELAB JA
SUBJECT:  DAILY SUMMARY OF JAPANESE PRESS 05/26/06 
 
 
INDEX: 
 
(1) Prime minister's US visit to start on July 27 2 
 
(2) Government to delete specifics from its draft plan for a 
cabinet decision for implementing US-Japan final agreement on 
USFJ realignment in consideration of Okinawa 2 
 
(3) Administrative reform promotion bill to be enacted today; 
Koizumi imprint shunted into background; Abe now focuses on 
social divide  3 
 
(4) Sharp showdown between Abe and Fukuda in LDP presidential 
race 5 
 
(5) What underlies relations between Abe and Fukuda as rivals for 
LDP presidency (Part 1)  6 
 
(6) What underlies relations between Abe and Fukuda as rivals for 
LDP presidency (Part 2): Largest faction's moves unlikely to 
determine trend for LDP presidential race    8 
 
ARTICLES: 
 
(1) Prime minister's US visit to start on July 27 
 
SANKEI (Page 3) (Full) 
May 26, 2006 
 
US aims to underscore difference in treatment to Japan, China 
 
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will visit Canada and the US 
from June 27 through July 1, according to an official 
announcement by Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe in a press 
conference yesterday. In his last tour of the US before leaving 
office in September, the prime minister wants to highlight the 
Japan-US alliance in a global context. 
 
President George W. Bush and Koizumi are expected to exchange 
views in their meeting on June 29 on reconstruction assistance 
for Iraq, where the security situation is still looking grim 
despite the inauguration of a full-scale government. The two 
leaders are also likely to discuss North Korea's nuclear and 
abduction issues. 
 
Prior to the US visit, the prime minister will also visit Canada 
to meet Prime Minister Stephen Harper - the first since Harper 
took office - in Ottawa on June 28. 
 
Ahead of the G-8 summit (Sankt Peterburg Summit) in Russia in mid- 
July, the prime minister will coordinate views with the US and 
Canadian leaders on various issues facing the international 
community. 
 
US likely to treat Koizumi as state guest 
 
Takashi Arimoto, Washington 
 
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is not the chief of state, so 
the upcoming US tour is an "official visit," as said by 
Presidential spokesperson Snow. But the US is likely to treat 
Koizumi as a de facto state guest by arranging a banquet for him. 
When Chinese President Hu Jintao visited the US in April, the US 
 
TOKYO 00002934  002 OF 010 
 
 
held only a luncheon. According to a US government source, 
Washington's red-carpet treatment, unlike the one to the Chinese 
leader, "is also intended to demonstrate the close alliance 
between Japan and the US." 
 
Snow said: "The Japan-US alliance is based on common values and 
agenda items," adding that the two leaders are expected to 
discuss antiterrorism, the protection of freedom and democracy, 
the promotion of security and prosperity in Asia, and other 
issues. 
 
President Bush has rarely held a banquet since assuming the 
presidency, but he did hold one for Australian Prime Minister 
John Howard on May 16. Australia has also dispatched troops to 
Iraq, like Japan. 
 
Bush has highly appreciated Japan and Australia for the 
cooperation they have extended in fighting terrorism in 
Afghanistan and Iraq since the terrorist attacks on the US in 
September 2001. 
 
Washington's treatment of Prime Minister Koizumi also reflects 
the President's desire to "offer highest-level hospitality" 
before he leaves office in September, in order to convey his 
personal appreciation for his cooperation for Iraq 
reconstruction. 
 
(2) Government to delete specifics from its draft plan for a 
cabinet decision for implementing US-Japan final agreement on 
USFJ realignment in consideration of Okinawa 
 
OKINAWA TIMES (Page 1) (Full) 
May 25, 2006 
 
The government decided on May 24 to delete the "attached paper," 
which stipulates specific descriptions on the removing of the US 
Marine Corps Futenma Air Station to the coast of Camp Schwab in 
Nago City, from its draft plan for a cabinet decision, which will 
be made on based on the Japan-US final agreement on the 
realignment of US forces in Japan. 
 
The attached paper stipulates that a plan to construct an 
alternate base for the Futenma Air Station would be formulated by 
October and that the relocation site for the Futenma base would 
be constructed on "waters connecting Cape Henoko, Oura Bay, and 
Henoko Bay." Therefore, Okinawa Prefecture, which has yet to go 
along with the government's draft plan, reacted negatively. No 
prospect for an agreement was in sight, therefore. The government 
intends to prioritize an early cabinet decision by revising its 
draft plan in line with Okinawa's requests. 
 
The draft plan describes the government policy of implementing 
the contents of the final agreement on the USFJ realignment. It 
is composed of the main body describing the realignment of US 
forces across Japan and the attached paper focusing on the 
relocation of Futenma Air Station. 
 
The main part describes that it is necessary to steadily 
implement the relocation of Futenma Air Station to Camp Schwab, 
but it does not specify the relocation site, and the number and 
length of runaways. 
 
Given that, the possibility is strong that if the government 
 
TOKYO 00002934  003 OF 010 
 
 
presents a draft plan from which the attached paper is deleted, 
Okinawa will agree with it. 
 
The government initially decided that Okinawa Prefecture would 
accept the contents of the attached paper since Gov. Kenichi 
Inamine agreed to the basic confirmation document. 
 
Senior officials from the Defense Agency and the Defense 
Facilities Administration Agency visited Okinawa last week to 
discuss the draft plan for a cabinet decision, including the 
attached paper with senior Okinawa government officials. 
 
However, the talks failed to arrive at a compromise due to a big 
gap between the government and Okinawa. A senior prefectural 
government official said, "We cannot accept a cabinet decision 
that is based on the government's draft plan." 
 
Defense Agency Director General Fukushiro Nukaga agreed on May 23 
with Yuriko Koike, state minister in charge of the Okinawa issue, 
and Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Masahiro Futahashi on a policy 
of giving priority to coordination with local communities. 
 
(3) Administrative reform promotion bill to be enacted today; 
Koizumi imprint shunted into background; Abe now focuses on 
social divide 
 
ASAHI (Page 2) (Excerpts) 
May 26, 2006 
 
The administrative reform promotion bill, prepared under the 
initiative of Prime Minister Koizumi, is expected to be passed 
and enacted today at the plenary session of the Upper House. The 
prime minister, who has declared that he would step down in 
September, had originally aimed to urge his successor to take 
over his reform policy. However, even Chief Cabinet Secretary 
Abe, who has decided to run in the LDP presidential race, has 
hinted at his intention to slightly adjust the Koizumi reform 
plan. The ruling camp and various government agencies have begun 
moving to hamstring his reform policy. Ironically, what has 
emerged after more than two months of Diet deliberations is not 
the continuation but the correction of the Koizumi reform policy. 
 
The administrative reform promotion bill was adopted at the 
meeting of the Upper House Special Committee on Administrative 
Reform yesterday. During the meeting, Abe, who has propped up the 
Koizumi reform drive, stressed a stance of shedding light on the 
dark side of the reform drive. Abe stressed, "We must not let 
winners remain as winners and losers as losers." He thus 
explained his policy of offering a second chance for losers to 
try again, which he advocates in the run-up to the LDP 
presidential election. 
 
The aim of the administrative reform promotion legislation was to 
legally bind policy implementation by the post-Koizumi 
administration, as LDP Policy Research Council Chairman Hidenao 
Nakagawa put it. 
 
Nakagawa and Internal Affairs and Communications Minister 
Takenaka proposed the bill, emboldened by the LDP's landslide 
victory in the general election last fall. The aim was to 
characterize the current Diet session as an administrative reform 
Diet, assuming Abe as succeeding Koizumi, and pass along the 
reform policy to the next administration. 
 
TOKYO 00002934  004 OF 010 
 
 
 
However, the atmosphere has changed completely when the new year 
began. The Livedoor incident in January has upset the prediction 
that the ruling camp would be able to dictate the pace of the 
regular Diet session, as focus has shifted to the social divide. 
Criticism of the Koizumi reform drive has mounted rapidly. New 
Komeito leader Kanzaki has also begun to say, "The bipolarization 
between the rich and the poor is widening." 
 
Abe was quick to shift his stance to correcting the Koizumi 
policy, though the prime minister did not admit the widening 
disparities. In March, he established the Second Challenge 
Promotion Council to consider ways to give a second chance to 
those whose business failed or who were unable to find jobs. 
 
The turning point came on April 26, when the Koizumi 
administration marked the fifth anniversary of inauguration. At a 
meeting of the Upper House Special Committee on Administrative 
Reform, Abe noted: "The words 'small government' have the 
possibility of causing misunderstanding that it may mean less 
burden and less benefits regarding social security. I will use 
the term simple but efficient government so as to avoid causing 
such a misunderstanding. It was a major change from this 
statement, he made in March in front of reporters, "I will make a 
small government, based on this law." 
 
However, Abe cannot reject the Koizumi policy right in his face. 
He defended the position of the prime minister during a speech 
given on May 24: "There cannot be a world with no disparity at 
all. It is a problem to make an issue over disparity alone." The 
prime minister is the greatest backer of Abe. Persons close to 
him said, "Mr. Abe must act in unity with the prime minister." 
 
Ruling party members also against specific reform proposals 
 
Abe is not the only person who wants to revise Koizumi's policy. 
Ryosei Akazawa, a first-time lawmaker of the LDP, said at the 
Prime Minister's Official Residence (Kantei): "I want to build 
roads that should be built so that Japan will not be left behind 
European countries and the US." The Group to Discuss Local 
Regions consisting of like-minded members of the Group 83, a 
group of lawmakers elected last year, mapped out a set of 
proposals for consolidating the road system and submitted it to 
Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Nagase. 
 
The package noted that it is essential to construct necessary 
roads. Roads were the symbol of the Koizumi reform drive, but the 
so-called Koizumi's protgs elected to the Diet last year hinted 
at their opposition to the Koizumi reform policy. 
 
In the move to abolish or integrate government-affiliated 
d 
financial institutions, based on the prime minister's policy of 
integrating them into one, if possible, the commerce and industry 
policy clique of the LDP and New Komeito members repeatedly asked 
questions to Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Nikai, saying, 
"We have heard anxious views from small and medium-size business 
operators throughout the country." They strongly called for 
maintaining financial functions for small and medium-size 
businesses and government involvement in the privatization of the 
Central Bank for Commercial and Industrial Associations. 
 
In the end, the additional resolution adopted at the Upper House 
 
TOKYO 00002934  005 OF 010 
 
 
committee meeting on May 25 included such items as "securing 
employment in reducing the number of public servants in net 
terms" and "meeting a demand for capital from small and medium- 
size businesses in a proper manner." The resolution included 
items that connote opposition to specific reform proposals. 
 
Behind such moves is the circumstance that all lawmakers are on 
the move with an eye on the Upper House election next summer, as 
a mid-level LDP lawmaker put it. 
 
During a meeting of the Council on Unified Reform of Fiscal and 
Financial Systems, which was held to discuss specific measures to 
cut expenditures, Upper House LDP Secretary General Mikio Aoki 
made requests regarding cuts in public works projects and social 
security expenses, noting, "We'll have the Upper House election 
next year. I would like you to give consideration to this." 
 
Yesterday evening, when the Upper House adopted the 
administrative reform promotion bill, LDP Secretary General 
Tsutomu Takebe made a speech at a party held by construction 
 
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companies: "The building of infrastructure is still insufficient. 
We must secure the necessary budget funds for it." 
 
(4) Sharp showdown between Abe and Fukuda in LDP presidential 
race 
 
TOKYO SHIMBUN (Page 2) (Abridged slightly) 
May 26, 2006 
 
Fukuda's "wait-and-see strategy" effective to display political 
identity 
 
Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, who enjoys high support 
rating in opinion polls as a successor to Prime Minister Koizumi, 
revealed that he would formally announce after the mid-July G-8 
summit in St. Petersburg his candidacy for the September Liberal 
Democratic Party (LDP) presidential election. With Abe's 
revelation, the groups of possible post-Koizumi contenders have 
vigorously thrown themselves into political activities. The focus 
is now on moves by former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda 
who has second-highest popularity in opinion polls following Abe. 
It has now become clear that Abe and Fukuda, both from the Mori 
faction in the LDP, will have a showdown. 
 
Asked about his impression of Abe's remarks, Fukuda said on May 
25, "No biological reaction." He confused reporters. He attended 
a meeting of the parliamentary group to promote research on 
continental shelves, which he chairs, later in the day. 
 
It was desirable for Fukuda that both he and Abe would not 
formally announce their candidacies for the election to the last. 
 
It would be ideal for Fukuda to win after making efforts until 
the very last minutes. Then, at that point, Abe would support 
Fukuda. 
 
However, Abe's remarks forced Fukuda to change his strategy. 
Prospects for Fukuda are not necessarily that dark since his 
popularity has climbed in opinion polls. 
 
A veteran lawmaker supporting Fukuda said, "Mr. Fukuda has gained 
support, meeting business leaders almost everyday. His efforts 
have paid back." 
 
TOKYO 00002934  006 OF 010 
 
 
 
Seishiro Eto, who regards himself as an aide to Fukuda, spoke for 
Fukuda, "Mr. Fukuda will probably begin moving after the end of 
the current Diet session. (Abe remarks) will have no impact on 
him." 
 
Abe starts taking action, breaking his silence feeling sense of 
crisis 
 
"I did not say I would run in the election," Abe told former 
Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, how heads the Mori faction in the 
LDP. 
 
Mori then responded, "When you read well the contents of your 
speech, what you said is right." They shared the view that they 
should prevent the presidential race from overheating rapidly. 
 
Abe had refrain from mentioning the presidential election 
determining that he would put his mind on his duty as chief 
cabinet secretary. 
 
Abe is concerned that his remarks could intensify moves over the 
presidential race and stall Diet debate, dampening the finish of 
the Koizumi reform drive. 
 
Given the situation, Abe's decision to announce his candidacy for 
the presidency is apparently the expression of his concern about 
a rapid surge in Fukuda's popularity. 
 
Fukuda played up his enthusiasm for the prime minister's post 
during his visit to the United State during the Golden Week 
holiday period. He then gained public support. 
 
Abe, meanwhile, has accelerated the pace of crafting a policy of 
supporting jobless workers, job-hoppers, employment of baby 
boomers who will soon retire, and entrepreneurs. Since some LDP 
members have insisted that the Koizumi reform drive has widened 
an income disparity, Abe will have to correct the reform policy 
line and display his own political identity. 
 
Profiles of Abe and Fukuda 
 
         Abe       Fukuda 
Age       51          69 
 
Number of times elected to the Diet 
Abe: 5 times(Yamaguchi No.4 district) 
Fukuda: 6 times(Gunma No.4 district) 
 
Political career 
 
Abe: Chief cabinet secretaryLDP secretary generalDeputy chief 
cabinet secretary general 
Fukuda: Chief cabinet secretaryParliamentary vice minister for 
foreign affairsLDP Treasury Bureau chief 
 
(5) What underlies relations between Abe and Fukuda as rivals for 
LDP presidency (Part 1) 
 
MAINICHI (Page 1 & 2) (Slightly abridged) 
May 25, 2006 
 
Fukuda's request for "cancellation of another visit to North 
 
TOKYO 00002934  007 OF 010 
 
 
Korea" turns to be declaration of breaking off relations with 
prime minister 
 
William Breer, director of the Office of Japanese Affairs at the 
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), met with 
former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda on April 14 in Tokyo 
during his recent visit to Japan. According to informed sources, 
they discussed mainly the Liberal Democratic Party presidential 
election set for September. Breer said: "You are steadily winning 
popularity, aren't you?" In response, Fukuda smilingly said: "I 
have never said I will run in the election." But he added: "Even 
so, I feel good. I will enjoy it for a while." 
 
Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe and Fukuda are now the top two 
public choices for next prime minister. But their relations with 
the prime minister are contradictory. There was a decisive scene 
when the prime minister suggested another visit to North Korea 
two years ago. In his official residence (Kantei) on the evening 
of April 28 in 2004, Prime Minister Koizumi was with Fukuda and 
Foreign Ministry's Deputy Foreign Minister (then) Hitoshi Tanaka. 
Koizumi said: "I am thinking about another visit to North Korea. 
I heard that Pyongyang has indicated a willingness to allow eight 
abductees and their family members to go back to Japan." 
 
The Foreign Ministry heard that Isao Iijima, a secretary to the 
prime minister, was working to break the impasse in relations 
with North Korea by using his personal ties with a senior member 
of the General Federation of Korean Residents in Japan (Chosen 
Soren). The senior member reportedly was winning North Korean 
chief Kim Jong Il's confidence. 
 
Fukuda, who placed emphasis on a formal route through the Foreign 
Ministry, asked the prime minister: "What route are you going to 
use?" But the prime minister's reply was that "disclosing it is 
impossible." This reply was humiliating for Fukuda. He repeatedly 
asked Koizumi to cancel the planned second visit to North Korea. 
 
On May 7, Fukuda suddenly left the post of chief cabinet 
secretary for his failure in having paid into the mandatory state 
 
SIPDIS 
pension plan. On May 22, the prime minister visited Pyongyang, 
and Fukuda's remark turned to be a declaration of breaking off 
his relationship with the prime minister. 
 
Meanwhile, the prime minister has begun to reveal his favor of 
supporting Abe as his successor since he appointed Abe as chief 
cabinet secretary in the cabinet reshuffle last October. On the 
even of the reshuffle, the prime minister made a phone call to 
LDP Acting Chief Cabinet Secretary Abe, saying: "You visited 
South Korea, didn't you? I would like you to come to Kantei at 
10:00 am tomorrow to report on the tour." 
 
The prime minister explained to Abe, who arrived at Kantei, about 
his plan to award the post of chief cabinet secretary to him. A 
close aide to the prime minister said: "Keeping him close at 
hand, the prime minister intends to have Mr. Abe learn how the 
prime minister should perform." 
 
Yasukuni issue triggered discord between Koizumi, Fukuda 
 
Relations between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and former 
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda have cooled down since 
Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni Shrine. It was Koizumi, however, who 
paved the way for Fukuda to assume office as chief cabinet 
 
TOKYO 00002934  008 OF 010 
 
 
secretary in the Mori administration. 
 
SIPDIS 
 
Following the demise of his father, Koizumi ran in the House of 
Representatives election in 1969 but failed to win a seat. Until 
he was elected for the first time in 1972, he had commuted to 
former Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda's residence in Nozawa, Tokyo, 
as his secretary. Koizumi and his son, Yasuo Fukuda, were on 
first-name terms. When Hidenao Nakagawa resigned as chief cabinet 
secretary in the Mori cabinet, Koizumi as chairman of the Mori 
 
SIPDIS 
faction recommended Prime Minister Mori to pick Fukuda as 
successor to Nakagawa. 
 
Relations between the two, however, began to cool, set off by 
Prime Minister Koizumi's first visit to Yasukuni Shrine in 2001. 
In the election campaigning in April of the same year, Koizumi 
put up "paying homage at Yasukuni Shrine on August 15" as a 
campaign pledge. 
 
China, however, fiercely reacted to the prime minister's plan to 
visit Yasukuni Shrine on Aug. 15. Seriously taking a report from 
Ambassador to China Koreshige Anami noting: "If he is determined 
to pay homage, he should go sometime other than Aug. 15; 
otherwise, relations between Japan and China will inevitably be 
affected seriously." 
 
Anami added in the letter: "Should the prime minister visit the 
shrine on Aug. 15, his administration might collapse. The prime 
minister will no longer be unable to carry out reforms, including 
the privatization of postal services and the reform of the Japan 
Highway Public Corporation. All his reform plans will be dashed." 
But the prime minister's determination was firm. 
 
Then Lower House Speaker Tamisuke Watanuki also tried to find way 
out of the impasse. The prime minister later ousted Watanuki from 
the LDP over the issue of postal privatization, but their 
relations were in good shape at that time. Watanuki made the 
following advice to Fukuda over the phone: "In the spring and 
autumn annual celebrations, cleyera japonica is dedicated in 
front of the main shrine. I want you to convey to Junchan 
(Junichiro) that there is the way of providing Japanese sake in 
front of cleyera japonica without entering the main chamber." 
 
Later, though, secretary Isao Iijima called Fukuda and conveyed 
the prime minister's reply that he would visit the shrine on Aug. 
¶13. Remembering this, Watanuki grumbled: "Mr. Fukuda must have 
felt dissatisfied at the reply from the prime minister's 
secretary." 
 
SIPDIS 
 
The prime minister visited Yasukuni Shrine on Aug. 13, but "a 
statement by the prime minister" - issued on that occasion under 
Fukuda's initiative - included a plan to set up a panel to 
discuss a construction of a new war-dead memorial. But the prime 
minister ignored the plan, and a private advisory panel was set 
up under Fukuda. 
 
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Abe insisted that the 
prime minister should visit the shrine on Aug. 15 and opposed 
establishing a discussion panel for a new memorial facility. 
 
The advisory panel to Fukuda worked out a plan to set up a war- 
dead memorial facility, but the plan fizzled out in the end. 
 
The presidential election will be held after a lapse of five 
 
TOKYO 00002934  009 OF 010 
 
 
years. Former LDP Secretary General Makoto Koga suggested on May 
18 that a plan to separate Class-A war criminals from the 
millions of war dead should be discussed. Arguments for making 
Asia policy a central issue in the presidential election 
campaigning can be taken as expressing support for Fukuda. 
 
The prime minister strongly criticizes such moves, claiming: "The 
government should not be in a position of being involved in the 
issue." Abe also asserted: "If the Yasukuni issue is discussed as 
a campaign issue for the presidential rate, the issue will be 
further politicized." 
 
(6) What underlies relations between Abe and Fukuda as rivals for 
LDP presidency (Part 2): Largest faction's moves unlikely to 
determine trend for LDP presidential race 
 
MAINICHI (Page 2) (Slightly abridged) 
May 26, 2006 
 
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi held a meeting with Mikio Aoki, 
head of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) caucus in the House of 
Council, on the evening of May 8, after a party executive meeting 
in the Diet building. In response to Aoki's remark: "I want you 
to fully discuss this matter with Mr. Mori (former Prime Minister 
Yoshiro Mori)," Koizumi replied: "I know. I am scheduled to visit 
Kanazawa (Mori's electoral district) shortly. Once there, I am 
going to talk with him about it." Later, the prime minister 
invited Mori on the phone to dine with him, but they were unable 
to adjust their schedules. 
 
The Mori faction (chaired by Yoshiro Mori), in which Koizumi was 
a member, is the LDP's largest faction with 86 members. But only 
a few take the view that its moves will determine the trend for 
the LDP presidential election in September, because the prime 
minister speaking to reporters in Ghana on May 2 rejected the 
notion of fielding a unified candidate from the faction. 
 
Mori said he was willing to field either Chief Cabinet Secretary 
Shinzo Abe or former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, out of 
concern that rivalry between Abe and Fukuda could split his 
faction. In response to the prime minister's suggestion, however, 
Mori decided to give up the idea of fielding a unified candidate. 
 
The predecessor of Mori's faction is the Kishi faction set up by 
Nobusuke Kishi before the LDP presidential election in 1956, when 
he became prime minister. However, Mori publicly insists even 
now: "Seiwakai (= Mori faction) is the Fukuda faction." Mori 
thinks that the late Takeo Fukuda, Yasuo's father, is the real 
founder his faction. 
 
After Prime Minister Kishi stepped down in 1960, the Kishi 
faction split into several factions, including the Fukuda 
faction. Shintaro Abe, Shinzo's father, succeeded to Fukuda as 
the head of the faction in 1986, which was then in its 24th year, 
but Abe died in 1991. Shinzo Abe, the son, is 51 years old, while 
Fukuda is 69 years old. Mori has judged it desirable to have Abe 
give up his candidacy this time to keep him as an ace in the 
hole. 
 
Fukuda's recent moves seem to represent his love for his father. 
He expressed eagerness on April 25 to work out a new doctrine 
with Asia diplomacy as the theme. He was keeping in mind the 
Fukuda doctrine that his father, Prime Minister Fukuda issued in 
 
TOKYO 00002934  010 OF 010 
 
 
1977 while reflecting on the deterioration of relations between 
Japan and China in the days of the (Kakuei) Tanaka 
administration. 
 
Some LDP members, though, have reacted coolly to Fukuda's relying 
on his father's name like that. Setting aside veteran politicians 
who once associated with Takeo Fukuda, including Mori, many 
medium-ranking or junior LDP members feel close to Abe. A senior 
LDP member said: "Only a handful of members, including former 
Defense Agency Director General Seishiro Eto, support Mr. 
Fukuda." Abe has independently started preparations to run for 
the election, saying: "It is impossible for the faction to be 
united firmly." 
 
Former Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa cited the conflict 
between Takeo Fukuda and former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka in 
the 1972 presidential race to succeed Eisaku Sato. At that time, 
Fukuda continued to tell Shiokawa and others: "Don't move," 
expecting Sato to exert his influence. But Tanaka defeated Fukuda 
by his strategy of drawing many votes from other factions. 
 
Political analyst Hirotada Asakawa, who knows Yasuo Fukuda well, 
said: "Yasuo might be expecting that the faction will field a 
unified candidate through talks." On May 24, Abe expressed his 
eagerness to run in the presidential election. For Fukuda, is the 
option of fighting Abe now in the cards? 
 
SCHIEFFER