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Sunday Morning News

Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi Dies at 62

Aired May 14, 2000 - 8:27 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Six weeks after a stroke left him in a coma, former Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi is dead. The 62- year-old Obuchi died today in a Tokyo hospital a little more than a month after his condition forced the government to choose a new leader.

CNN Tokyo bureau chief Marina Kamimura looks back on Obuchi's life.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARINA KAMIMURA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Whether he was making the rounds on the diplomatic circuit or trying his arm on the baseball mound, Keizo Obuchi was never one to throw curves. His power came doing things the Japanese way.

THOMAS FOLEY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO JAPAN: That's the result of constant attention to individual and personal relationships, constant consultation. It is a time consuming and difficult way to conduct politics, but it's a very effective way.

KAMIMURA: Born in rural Guma Prefecture (ph) north of Tokyo, Obuchi's political career began at 26 when, in 1963, Obuchi and the man who later would precede him as prime minister became the youngest law makers ever to walk into the country's halls of power.

Although he virtually disappeared from the public conscience until 1989 when as Japan's top government spokesman he unveiled the name of a new imperial era, Obuchi had already made a name for himself where it counted, within the party that had dominated Japanese politics since the 1950s, the Liberal Democrats.

Backed by former Prime Minister Nobudo Takesta (ph), Obuchi was known as a consensus builder. His low key style earned him the nickname of cold pizza by a world craving new age leaders. But Obuchi's quiet perseverance paid off in 1998.

FOLEY: I remember telling him, Mr. Prime Minister, in my country the best thing in many ways is to come in with low expectations and by your performance to make your critics eat their words. And he did that.

KAMIMURA: As Obuchi himself put it, "I'm the best person to unite all the might Japan has now," he told CNN, "the best to unite all the political powers in Japan." And keen to give Japan a better international profile, the man who visited nearly 40 countries in his college days bridged historical divides as well, overseeing diplomatic breakthroughs with countries like South Korea.

JESPER KOLL, MERRILL LYNCH: Prime Minister Obuchi was the prime minister who could not say no. If you had a problem, be that political or an economic one, Prime Minister Obuchi could be counted on to mobilize help to get you out of the troubles that you were in.

KAMIMURA: But somewhere along the way voters lost faith, fed up by what they saw as heavy handed political maneuvering by those at the top. And seeing little economic gain for themselves despite a trial dollars in government spending. By the time Obuchi was suddenly hospitalized, Japan had become the most indebted country in the world.

TAKESHI SASAKI, UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO: He was successful at the beginning of his policy but in the last stage of his government, people are very much perspective of their future.

KAMIMURA: The historians will decide how he's remembered, be it as a man who was able to unite disparate political forces at a time when Japan's lumbering economy desperately needed it, a man who pushed his country into unprecedented levels of debt or as one of the last of Japan's post-W.W.II politicians, as a new generation searches for a different kind of leader.

Marina Kamimura, CNN, Tokyo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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