A shadow of a shogun
The powers of the most influential politician of the past 25 years are fading
AFTER leading an unsuccessful ruling-party rebellion against a big tax increase on June 26th, Ichiro Ozawa appeared to pump his fist and mouth an emphatic “Yes!” It was curiously triumphant from a politician who has so often snatched personal victory out of adversity. Some saw it as a bluff by a man whose unparalleled influence over politics since the cold war appears to be ending.
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “A shadow of a shogun”
From the June 30th 2012 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the edition
Why Christianity is taking an Asian turn
Believers have clout in South Korea, the Philippines, Japan and beyond
Indians are losing big on the stockmarket
The middle-class enthusiasm for derivatives is a relatively new phenomenon
Why Narendra Modi has embraced an anti-caste icon
B.R. Ambedkar dedicated his life to challenging Hinduism
The biggest bugs in the new gold rush are Asian
Wall Street is loading up on bullion. So are people in China and India
Where new talks between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un might go
A crisis is more likely than a genuine breakthrough
Japan faces a reckoning over rice
A crisis over its staple reveals cracks in the country’s food system