Japan's new foreign minister a Churchill admirer

TOKYO: Japan's new foreign minister Koichiro Gemba, 47, is seen as one of the rising stars of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan and an admirer of British wartime leader Winston Churchill.

Gemba was national strategy minister in the outgoing government and advocated a drive to promote free trade and the rehabilitation of debt-ridden state coffers.

He was born into a sake-brewing family and his younger brother has taken on the traditional business as the master brewer.

After graduating from the law faculty of Sophia University in Tokyo, Gemba joined the elite Matsushita Institute of Government and Management, set up by Panasonic founder and business guru Konosuke Matsushita.

Hailing from the northeastern prefecture hit by the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl after the March 11 tsunami, Gemba began his political career as a member of the Fukushima prefectural assembly in 1991.

After winning a seat in national parliament in 1993, he joined a now-defunct small liberal party before joining the centre-left DPJ on its foundation in 1996.

His fellow alumni on the Matsushita course, which trains its students in management skills and world affairs as well as ancient arts such as kendo stick fighting and Zen meditation, include Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.

Gemba is known to also share Noda's view that Japan needs to raise taxes to fight its ballooning fiscal debt, but his diplomatic ideas have seen little publicity ahead of his appointment as foreign minister.

He respects Churchill and Tanzan Ishibashi, a journalist who became Japanese prime minister in the 1950s, according to his official website.

Ishibashi was critical of Japan's colonisation of Asian nations and worked towards restoring diplomatic ties with China after leaving office.

As foreign minister Gemba will be tasked with soothing recently strained relations with Asian neighbours such as China over territorial disputes last year, amid the backdrop of lingering anger over Japan's wartime aggression.

Noda ruffled Japan's neighbours, particularly South Korea, with recent remarks that Japanese Class-A war criminals convicted by an Allied tribunal were not war criminals under Japanese law.

The new foreign minister must also work to maintain relations with key ally the United States. Tokyo and Washington have had protracted discussions over the relocation of a US military base on the southern island of Okinawa.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011