A Liberal Turning Realist: Miki Takeo

Abstract

The 1973 war in the Middle East and the ensuing rise in the price of oil not only led to rampant inflation but also brought confusion to the economies of many countries. Not least Japan, with its heavy dependence on imported oil, faced the arduous task of adjusting to radically different conditions. The alarming events during the oil ‘crisis’, when ships destined for Japan suddenly changed their route away from Japan, made it evident to many that the Japanese economy and — in the end — Yoshida’s insight that Japan was a trading nation was not an idea only for the nineteenth century but still valid. That Japan’s developmental model chosen after the war was in serious trouble, with economic growth plummeting, was only too obvious to Tanaka’s successor as prime minister, Miki Takeo. His election was a surprise. Even though he had been in the centre of political life since the days of Yoshida and served on many important posts in the Japanese government, Miki was nevertheless often described as a political outsider (Tanaka Zenichirō, 1981c, p. 365). He was appointed chairman of the LDP in a surprise move by LDP Vice-Chairman Shiina Etsusaburō, who had been entrusted with the task of canvassing views after Tanaka’s resignation. Shiina opted for a compromise candidate to enable the LDP to survive ‘its greatest crisis since it was founded’ (Shiina quoted in Fujita, 1979, p. 122).