Better Late than Never

After the disastrous tenure of Shinzo Abe, the LDP has finally come to its senses and selected the man it should have chosen from the beginning, Yasuo Fukuda.

TOKYO (AP) -- The veteran moderate Yasuo Fukuda easily won election as Japan's ruling party president Sunday, pledging to keep a pro-U.S. foreign policy and improve ties with Asia after he almost certainly becomes prime minister later this week.

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Fukuda's key policies include engaging North Korea diplomatically, pushing for extension of Japan's naval mission in support of U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, and giving aid to rural regions left behind by the economic recovery.

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Abe, 53, came into office a year ago with high support ratings and an unquestioned ruling coalition dominance in parliament.

But he quickly frittered away those advantages as his Cabinet overflowed with money scandals and he pressed ahead with a nationalist agenda while people demanded more attention to bread-and-butter issues such as pensions.

Fukuda's interest in "engaging North Korea diplomatically" doesn't sit at all well with me, especially if it translates into the South Korean equivalent - i.e. giving Kim Jong Il lots of money with no strings attached - but on the whole he strikes me as a safe and sensible choice; he's not a charismatic superstar like Koizumi, but at least he isn't prone to the offensive gaffes of Taro Aso or Shinzo Abe's obsession with empty nationalist symbolism ordinary voters could care less about. A "beautiful country" isn't one in which school children are forced to sing Kimigayo and salute the Hinomaru, but one in which the streets are safe, the economy is flourishing, ties with neighbors are secure, and people can trust in their government to properly keep its commitments, and Yasuo Fukuda seems a man unlikely to lose sight of this.