International
Kawaguchi, Foreign Minister
By Amit Baruah
SINGAPORE: The Japanese Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, on Friday appointed Yoriko Kawaguchi (in the picture) as the country's new Foreign Minister after firing the controversial Makiko Tanaka earlier this week. ``Ms. Kawaguchi has much experience in diplomacy. My staff and Foreign Ministry officials will jointly reform the Ministry, taking over Tanaka's reform drive,'' the Prime Minister was quoted as saying in Tokyo. She was the Environment Minister prior to her new appointment. Mr. Koizumi, however, has seen his ratings fall in almost all polls that have been published since he sacked Ms. Tanaka as Foreign Minister. The Prime Minister himself is conscious of this fact. "In spite of a decline in the public support rate, I will not slow down the implementation of structural reform measures regardless of what the (ruling party's) old guard says.'' Ms. Kawaguchi's appointment came after Mr. Koizumi's special envoy on Afghanistan, Sadako Ogata, turned down the offer to become Foreign Minister. Ms. Kawaguchi (61) is a career bureaucrat-turned-private sector executive, who has served as Minister in the Japanese embassy in Washington.
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