Raw Japan

The new face of Koizumi

One in five politicians in the Japanese parliament is the child or grandchild of a politician, reinforcing a longstanding practice of influential political families handing power down to the next generation.

But voter criticism has been mounting ahead of the Aug. 30 election — especially in Yokosuka, a port city southwest of Tokyo, where former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has passed his seat on to his 28-year-old second son, Shinjiro Koizumi.

Shinjiro has worked at a Washington think tank and served as an aide to his father, after graduating from a private university near Tokyo and obtaining a masters degree from New York’s Columbia University.

That makes him the fourth generation of the family in a row to enter politics. His grandad and great grandad were cabinet ministers.