![]() ![]() Today Nonaka lives in the comfortable but modest Japanese-style home he moved into in 1975, right behind the Three Oceans Garden coffee shop. He gave up liquor to discourage spending on lavish banquets: food and drink had accounted for 20% of the town's deficit. As mayor of Sonobe, he declined the chauffeured car that went with the job, preferring to ride his scooter to work. When Nonaka first went into politics, his mother asked his younger brother, a farmer, to give him a year's supply of rice so that he wouldn't be tempted to accept payoffs. But as he climbed the ladder, he maintained a reputation as a plain-speaking politician who wasn't in it for the money. Nonaka helped engineer an LDP victory in the 1978 governor's race and became vice governor himself. The governor eventually backed down, and the union apologized. Suffering from stress-induced dizzy spells, he was hospitalized but continued to commute to the assembly, walking in with fellow members holding each arm. For his efforts, Nonaka received threatening phone calls at home, and someone threw a dead cat onto his front yard. In one skirmish, Nonaka attacked Ninagawa for illegally allowing teachers and other civil servants to work as full-time union officials. Later, as a member of Kyoto's prefectural assembly, he spent 12 years in opposition scrapping with the powerful communist governor of the region, Torazo Ninagawa. ![]() 16,300) at the age of 25, he was running the town by the time he was 33. Starting as a town councillor in Sonobe (pop. Nonaka sharpened his political elbows in the rough-and-tumble world of small-town Japan. "Nonaka can be Machiavellian," says Muneyuki Shindo, a political scientist at Rikkyo University in Tokyo. But Ozawa probably can't bolt because young Liberal Party pols wouldn't go with him now that Nonaka has promised them support in the next election. As soon as the agreement to form a coalition was announced, the LDP started ignoring his pet policy planks, such as cutting Japan's 5% consumption tax. Nonaka's admirers read things differently, arguing that the Chief Cabinet Secretary has set a trap for Ozawa. Subscribe to TIME! Get up to 3 MONTHS FREE!Ĭritics called the move an unprincipled bit of realpolitik: with Ozawa and his 11 Liberals on board, the LDP needs to attract only 10 more lawmakers into the fold to secure a majority in the 252-seat upper house. Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori clings to power as dissidents in his party finally decide not to back a no-confidence motionĪfter Florida's controversial ballot recount, Bush holds a 537-vote lead in the state, which could give him the election The American Express black card is the ultimate status symbol
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