Posted on 10/30/2013 9:42:17 PM PDT by TexGrill
Long silent and out of the public eye, former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s recent rumblings against nuclear power are causing many to wonder if the most popular leader of recent decades is laying the groundwork for a political comeback.
The 74-year-old Koizumi has met separately with two opposition party heads — Tadatomo Yoshida of the Social Democratic Party and Yoshimi Watanabe of Your Party — to discuss his mission to rid the nation of all 50 of its nuclear reactors.
A visit to a spent-fuel disposal site in Finland following the 2011 Fukushima crisis converted him to an anti-nuclear activist, Koizumi claims.
Recent speeches given at closed-door meetings made the headlines of gossip magazines. Now Koizumi is stepping up his anti-nuclear campaign.
On Oct. 16, for the first time he allowed TV cameras from media outlets to shoot an anti-nuclear lecture in its entirety in Kisarazu, Chiba Prefecture.
Next up, Koizumi is scheduled to hold a news conference at the Japan National Press Club on Nov. 12, where he will face senior reporters from all the major news outlets for the first time since stepping down as prime minister in 2006.
“He has great power to send messages to the public. That’s what I felt today,” Yoshida of the SDP said after meeting Koizumi on Tuesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at japantimes.co.jp ...
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