The characters in Mori Yoshiro are controversial.

"I don't want to lose my honor in my old age."

During Mori Yoshiro's tenure as Prime Minister (April 5, 2000 ~ April 26, 2006, 5438+0), he made frequent gaffes and became a joke of the Japanese. The foreign policy was chaotic, and the cabinet's support rate hit an unprecedented single-digit record. After only one year in office, it was forced to step down. However, since then, Japanese politics has entered the Mori Yoshiro era. The reason is that Mori Yoshiro has turned the Machimura faction into the most powerful faction in the Liberal Democratic Party, and holds the power to appoint the Japanese Prime Minister.

Japan's Asahi Shimbun revealed on September 24 that Taro Aso had obvious advantages in running for the presidency of the Liberal Democratic Party, so he started the personnel layout within the Liberal Democratic Party early. An open secret is that after Taro Aso resigns as the Secretary-General, the next Secretary-General must be replaced by a meritorious machimura member. Aso immediately thought of Mori Yoshiro, a member of the House of Representatives of the Liberal Democratic Party and honorary president of the Machimura faction. Now, the Democratic Party, the number one enemy of the Liberal Democratic Party, threatens that the general election of the House of Representatives will begin soon. If Mori Yoshiro comes out, the LDP will have one more trump card in the election campaign.

/kloc-One afternoon in September, 2008, Mori Yoshiro had just returned from a holiday in Micronesia, a North Pacific island country, and former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hurriedly informed him. As soon as he opened his mouth, he said, "Ma Shengjun wants Mr. Sen to be the secretary-general." Abe thought it was a brilliant idea, but Mori Yoshiro said, "It would be a joke. I'm not that shameless. " In Mori Yoshiro's view, after Taro Aso was elected as prime minister, it is only natural that one of the two posts, Secretary-General and Chief Cabinet Secretary, should be appointed by Machimura, and there is no need to come forward by himself.

Two days later, Aso called Mori Yoshiro and invited Mori Yoshiro out of the mountain. However, as soon as Aso wins the House of Representatives election, he will be replaced by a new secretary-general. Mori Yoshiro was even more unhappy and refused: "I don't want to lose my honor in my old age." Finally, Taro Aso proposed Hiroyuki Hosoda as Secretary-General, and Mori Yoshiro accepted this proposal, for which Taro Aso expressed his gratitude. Later, Aso invited Mori Yoshiro to be an adviser to the Liberal Democratic Party. Mori Yoshiro said: "Even if I don't have this position, I will help the Liberal Democratic Party."

In fact, Mori Yoshiro's consent is needed for Aso to reshuffle his cabinet and appoint or dismiss important officials, not to mention Junichiro Koizumi, Shinzo Abe and Yasuo Fukuda, the "primary school students" brought up by Mori Yoshiro. In Mori Yoshiro's view, his prime minister's career is only the beginning of the road to power.

The least popular prime minister

Mori Yoshiro became prime minister by accident. From 1993 to 2000, Japan changed five prime ministers. At that time, the Japanese buzzword was: "Singers are popular for one year, and the first place is quite two years."

In 2000, Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi died of a stroke. At that time, leaders of five factions within the Liberal Democratic Party (Mori Yoshiro is one of them) met in a secret room to discuss who would take over. During this time, someone suggested, "How about letting Mori Yoshiro try?" Then, Mori Yoshiro stood out. However, this is a wrong choice. The Japanese economy has not improved, and Mori Yoshiro often puts his foot in his mouth.

When Mori Yoshiro was in college, he joined the debate team and talked a lot. After he became prime minister, someone teased him and said, "Please be sure to prepare a box lunch before coming to Mori Yoshiro to give a speech." A reporter who interviewed Mori Yoshiro said that Mori Yoshiro could write an article by answering a question. Mori Yoshiro responded with a smile: "This is the service." At that time, Mori Yoshiro also hired Yasuo Fukuda, who had no cabinet experience at all, as the Chief Cabinet Secretary, and was criticized by the media as "not qualified to be prime minister". Later, Yasuo Fukuda became the longest-serving Chief Cabinet Secretary in Japanese history.

Mori Yoshiro's "excellent eloquence" made him suffer a great loss in politics. At that time, Japan and North Korea were arguing endlessly on the issue of "Japanese kidnapped". Mori Yoshiro himself hopes to resume diplomatic relations with North Korea as soon as possible, but Japanese nationals still hate North Korea and oppose the establishment of diplomatic relations. On one occasion, Mori Yoshiro and British Prime Minister Tony Blair talked about this issue, and Mori Yoshiro thought that North Korea could make up an excuse to say that "these Japanese were found in a third country". Mori Yoshiro's rash remarks caused an uproar in Japan.

In May 2000, Mori Yoshiro, who was visiting Italy, hosted a banquet for nakata hidetoshi, a Japanese football star who was very active in Rome. During the dinner, Mori Yoshiro sighed: "The Japanese football team has not won South Korea outside Japan!" Nakata hidetoshi was shocked and said, "I won!" Finally, nakata hidetoshi refused to take a photo with Mori Yoshiro alone. Mori Yoshiro also criticized Osaka people, saying, "You only know how to save money, save money, have no sense of public affairs, and don't care about elections. The speech is still very sharp, it is simply a spittoon! " Aroused great anger in osaka.

In February, 20001,the Ehime, a fishing practice boat driven by a group of Japanese high school students, was sunk by the American nuclear submarine Greenville in the Hawaiian waters, killing nine people. Mori Yoshiro was playing golf and didn't return to his official residence for an hour and a half after receiving the report. Although Mori Yoshiro's explanation was well-founded, the front pages of major media were accompanied by large photos of Mori Yoshiro playing golf, which aroused public anger and led to an unprecedented single-digit support rate of 5.7% in the Japanese cabinet. Yukio Hatoyama, leader of the opposition Democratic Party, joked: "The support rate of Mori Yoshiro's cabinet is comparable to the Japanese consumption tax rate (5%)." Two months later, Mori Yoshiro was forced to resign.

The "tumbler" in Japanese politics

As the prime minister of a country, Mori Yoshiro lives in the spotlight every day, and his words and deeds are concerned by the public and hyped by the media. But once he turned behind the scenes, Mori Yoshiro's cheerful and quick-talking personality was loved by many people, and politicians thought that this was everyone's true demeanor. The Prime Minister is not the most suitable position for Mori Yoshiro, but his historical mission is to "be the Prime Minister".

Mori Yoshiro is 175 cm tall and weighs more than 100 kg. Standing with the leaders of western countries, he is a big shot. When Yasuo Fukuda's father, Fukuda Takeo, became Prime Minister, Mori Yoshiro was only the Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary. Every time he walks next to skinny Fukuda Takeo, the unknown Mori Yoshiro is always mistaken for Fukuda Takeo's bodyguard.

Mori Yoshiro was born with political talent. In his hometown of Ishikawa Prefecture, there are many anecdotes about Mori Yoshiro, saying that he won high school, football team and Waseda University because of his personal relationship. It is with superb political skills that Mori Yoshiro can gain a firm foothold in Japanese politics.

Since Junichiro Koizumi stepped down, Japanese political circles have been calling for Mori Yoshiro to come out of the mountain. After Yasuo Fukuda resigned, Shintaro Ishihara, a famous Japanese right-winger and governor of Tokyo, was asked who he supported in running for the next prime minister. He said happily, "Mori Yoshiro, of course." Mori Yoshiro is now the biggest figure in the Liberal Democratic Party, and he has decided the fate of many Japanese politicians.

"Next, it's Ma Shengjun's turn."

Since Yasuo Fukuda reshuffled his cabinet in August 1 and invited Taro Aso to be the secretary-general, Mori Yoshiro began to say on various occasions: "The next (prime minister) should be Aso Jun." A strange phenomenon in the presidential election of the Liberal Democratic Party is the "split" of the Machimura faction. Mori Yoshiro, a veteran, supports Aso, while Junichiro Koizumi, another elder, explicitly supports yuriko koike. Under the leadership of Honorary President Mori Yoshiro and President Nobutaka Machimura, more than 70% of the votes of Machimura were voted for Aso. Others, led by Junichiro Koizumi and Nakagawa Hidenao, former secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party, supported yuriko koike.

Machimura faction is the most powerful faction in the Liberal Democratic Party, also known as "Qinghe Policy Research Association", with 88 members. In 1998, Mori Yoshiro was the president, so he was called Senpai. In 2000, Mori Yoshiro became Japanese Prime Minister and Junichiro Koizumi took over as President. 200 1, Mori Yoshiro pushed Junichiro Koizumi to the position of prime minister, and he went back to be the president himself. June 5438 +2006 10, Mori Yoshiro resigned as principal, and Nobutaka Machimura took over, later renamed Machimura School, and Mori Yoshiro served as honorary principal.

Yuriko koike himself belongs to Machimura School, but Aso is not a "hardcore fan" of Machimura School. So, why did Mori Yoshiro take the lead in supporting "outsider" Aso? This stems from the special phenomenon of Japanese politics-factions. In Japanese politics, no faction can create a prime minister by itself. To become a prime minister, you must get more than half of the votes of the members of parliament. The Machimura faction has only 88 members, which is less than 1/4 of the total number of members.

Continue to "be" Prime Minister

"Like other countries, Japanese politics is also party politics, but the difference is that in Japan, the manifestation of party politics is factional politics." These are the words of Makiko Tanaka, the daughter of former Japanese Prime Minister tanaka kakuei and a member of Parliament. For most of the time from 65438 to 0955, the Liberal Democratic Party was the ruling party in Japan, and its president was the Prime Minister. If you want to be elected president of the Liberal Democratic Party, you must win the support of most factions in the party.

1955, with the help of the American occupation forces, the Liberal Party and the Democratic Party, two major conservative parties in Japan, merged into the "Liberal Party", commonly known as the Liberal Democratic Party. The characteristics of the merged political parties have led to the proliferation of factions of the Liberal Democratic Party since its establishment. Later, these factions gradually settled down and formed eight factions. This is the beginning of Japanese factional politics. The wind and water turn, and the position of the boss of the valve is constantly changing. In each period, no matter which faction a candidate for prime minister belongs to, as long as he wants to be prime minister, he must get the support of the strongest faction.

Later, the forces of the eight factions gradually balanced, and cooperation between different factions became more important. Secret room politics came into being-the leader of the strongest faction of the Liberal Democratic Party met in the secret room, and after bargaining, the Prime Minister was finalized. Only they know how to trade behind the scenes. Now the secret room of Japanese politics is getting more and more colorful, and Aso's election is a living example.

Aso faction is not a big faction in the LDP, with only 20 members, ranking sixth among the eight factions. As prime minister, Taro Aso must win the support of other factions, especially the majority of the Machimura faction. If the Machimura faction boycotts Aso, even if Aso has the power to reverse Gan Kun, he will never realize the dream of the Prime Minister. In the first three elections, the Machimura faction collectively put forward their own presidential candidates, all of which won. Although yuriko koike came from Machimura School this year, she was not a candidate recommended by Machimura School, so she inevitably failed.

The main task of the Machimura faction now is not to maintain its absolute dominant position in the Liberal Democratic Party, but to maintain the ruling party position of the Liberal Democratic Party, so as not to fail in the House of Representatives election. Therefore, the Japanese media said that there is only one criterion for this presidential election, that is, whose face is more in line with the "election face" and who can attract the most votes. As long as this condition is met, all factions of the Liberal Democratic Party will support it, and Aso is the face that most meets the standard.

However, as long as the LDP wins the next House of Representatives election, Japan's factional politics will continue. Taro Aso's appointment as prime minister is just a comma in Japanese factional politics, and the struggle continues. After Taro Aso, Mori Yoshiro may "create" another prime minister.