Ozawa: The Man Who Wants to Save Japan - TIME

Ichiro Ozawa says that he's fond of working at practical things, that he "doesn't like to be showy on the stage." He had better get used to the limelight. If current polling trends continue and if — a big if — he can avoid a fatal taint from the latest of Japan's money-politics scandals, the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) could soon be Japan's next Prime Minister. An election for the lower house of the Diet has to be called by Sept. 10, but the surmise in Tokyo is that it may come as early as May 24, which is, by coincidence, Ozawa's 67th birthday. If the DPJ does indeed supplant the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and form a government, the significance of its victory would be enormous. The LDP has held power continuously (save for a brief period in 1993) since the modern Japanese political system took root in 1955. And it would not just be any old opposition leader who would be taking over; it would be the man who for nearly 20 years has been a backroom maverick in Japan's political system, who detests the LDP, and who has long argued that Japan and its politics had to change if the nation was to reach its potential.

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