Japan Is Too Old-Fashioned, Says One of Youngest Ministers Ever
Japan’s Abe Promotes Allies, Rising Star in Cabinet Reshuffle
(Bloomberg) -- One of Japan’s youngest-ever cabinet ministers -- and the public’s favorite to succeed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe -- criticized the country’s “old-fashioned” ways on his first day in the government.
Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, 38, made the comment in response to a controversy over whether he should take paternity leave when his pregnant wife gives birth. Koizumi, who’s the son of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, bolstered his already high profile when he touched on the idea after announcing his marriage to a well-known TV newscaster, adding that she was expecting a baby.
“The fact that there’s been so much fuss -- with people both for and against it -- shows Japan is rigid and old-fashioned,” Koizumi told reporters after becoming the third-youngest male cabinet minister since World War II. He said he hadn’t yet decided whether to take the leave, but would make sure he didn’t miss any important cabinet meetings or parliamentary sessions.
Koizumi’s appointment to the relatively weak environmental post stood out in a cabinet dominated by older men, with the next youngest minister 13 years his senior. While polls show Koizumi to be voters’ top choice to succeed Abe, seniority and the need to balance factional rivalries tend to hold sway over the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s cabinet choices.
Abe kept his core team unchanged in the 20-member cabinet, reappointing Finance Minister Taro Aso and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga. Although the line-up included 13 first-time ministers, the new cabinet had an average age of about 62 and was dominated by long-time Abe allies and conservative stalwarts.
For instance, Abe aide Koichi Hagiuda will take over the Education Ministry, which has often been at the center of battles with neighbors such as China and South Korea over how Japan’s wartime past is taught. One of Hagiuda’s past duties was to deliver Abe’s regular offerings to Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan’s war dead, but is seen by many in Asia as a symbol of its militarist past.
The prime minister needs as many allies as possible as he heads into what could be the last two years of his tenure, facing opposition to his plans to raise the sales tax to 10% from 8% starting next month and revise the country’s pacifist constitution. LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai said Wednesday he would support Abe, if he decided to run for an unprecedented fourth-straight term.
‘Rapid Change’
It wasn’t the first time Koizumi expressed frustration with Tokyo’s moribund political culture. He told Bloomberg News in May that the world’s oldest country wasn’t ready for the change it needed: “It’s no good for this country to stay as it is. What this country needs more than anything is change. Not just change, but rapid change.”
Koizumi has also been reported as saying he would consider having a separate family name from his wife, Christel Takigawa, if the law were changed to make that possible, setting him at odds with many members of Abe’s cabinet. The new cabinet line-up included two women, up from one in the previous government.
If he takes paternity leave, it would be a first for a sitting cabinet minister and could help persuade Japanese fathers who typically shun the benefits considered some of the most generous in the developed world. Just over 6% of men whose spouses gave birth took parental leave last year, compared with about 82% of women who gave birth, according to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.
Seiko Hashimoto, who became Olympics minister in the new cabinet for her first posting, was also the first Japanese lawmaker to take maternity leave. Koizumi cited the example of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who took six weeks of maternity leave last year. By contrast, the few Japanese men who take leave are off the job for less than five days, according to Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting.
“There are three important things, putting my work first, being ready for emergencies and making sure my wife isn’t worried,” Koizumi said. “I want to continue to consider how I can combine these three in the best way and gain the support of a lot of people.”
--With assistance from Shiho Takezawa and Emi Nobuhiro.
To contact the reporters on this story: Isabel Reynolds in Tokyo at ireynolds1@bloomberg.net;Emi Urabe in Tokyo at eurabe@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Jon Herskovitz
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.