Sentence examples for koizumi from inspiring English sources

Mr Abe, he says, could have unleashed a more penetrating third arrow as a test to approve new candidates, as Mr Koizumi did with postal reform.

Faced with growing speculation over the fate of the country's top bank regulator, Hakuo Yanagisawa, Mr Koizumi chose to remove him.

This was the only change that Mr Koizumi made to his economic team.

They are: Ryutaro Hashimoto, 63, a former prime minister who introduced Japan's "big bang" financial reform in 1997; Junichiro Koizumi, 59, a television-friendly former posts and telecoms minister; and Hiromu Nonaka, 75, an LDP heavyweight who wields considerable power behind the scenes.

It galvanised Mr Abe, who convinced Mr Koizumi of the issue's importance.

After promising tough reforms when he took office, Mr Koizumi proceeded to drift along and struck a series of disappointing compromises, while his popularity ratings slid from 80% to the low 40s.

But Koizumi-style reformists such as Hidenao Nakagawa were excluded from the new line-up.

He made his name in 2002 when accompanying his boss, the then-prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, on a trip to Pyongyang to meet the late Kim Jong Il and normalise ties.Until then, many Japanese had dismissed the rumours of kidnappings as a conspiracy theory.

True, early on he made a notable opening towards China, with whom relations had been strained under Mr Koizumi.

THE cabinet reshuffle that he executed on September 30th had been promised months in advance, but the most important choice confronting Junichiro Koizumi, Japan's prime minister, came into focus only days before he made his final decisions.

Two years after that the LDP itself was out of power.Mr Abe's first (and perhaps only) shining act as prime minister had been to rebuild the bridges with South Korea and China that had been casually burned by his predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi.