Japan Economy Digest
Japan Economy Digest January 25-31, 2012 The Office of Commercial Affairs, Royal Thai Embassy in Tokyo, Japan Edano's Diplomatic Jaunts Suggest Big Ambitions TOKYO (Nikkei)--Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yukio Edano has recently been showing off his diplomatic credentials, a curious contrast to his reputation as an expert on domestic affairs. This begs the questions: What has happened, and what is his goal of all this? In the January edition of his quarterly parliamentary reports, Edano listed the countries he visited as METI minister. The headline stated he had traveled the world as minister to protect Japan's national interests as a major trading nation and secure energy resources. Since assuming the office, Edano has visited North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He was the only minister not at the first cabinet meeting after Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda reshuffled it earlier this month, as Edano was in Myanmar. "I will be more actively involved this year," Edano said in the January report. Cautious aggression When the magnitude 9 earthquake hit Japan's northeast on March 11, Edano responded to the crisis as former Prime Minister Naoto Kan's chief cabinet secretary. He was always careful about what he said in the many news conferences he held as the tsunami and nuclear crisis unfolded, as he too did not know the exact details involving the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Because of this, Edano developed a reputation as a cautious politician. But his career belies a much more aggressive nature. When Kan made a name for himself in 1996 by aggressively investigating an HIV-tainted blood scandal, which had caused up to two thousand hemophilia patients to contract HIV, Edano, who was a first-term lawmaker with New Party Sakigake, also grilled senior Health Ministry officials in the Diet about their responsibility, looking in every way like a gung-ho opposition lawmaker.
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