Many LDP heavyweights swept away in DPJ`s landslide victory

TOKYO, Aug. 31 Kyodo -
With Sunday's House of Representatives election taking an enormous toll on the
long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party, many of its heavyweights fell at the
hands of challengers from the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan.
Although most of them managed to salvage a seat under the proportional
representation system, that gives candidates a second chance to be elected,
former Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa, former LDP vice president Taku
Yamasaki and former defense minister Fumio Kyuma ended up being thrown out of
parliament.
Other high-profile losers included former Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu, 78,
former Foreign Minister Taro Nakayama, 85, who was the oldest LDP candidate in
the contest, and LDP General Council Chairman Takashi Sasagawa, 73, as they
were not on the LDP proportional representation lists due to their age under a
party rule.
It was Kaifu's first election defeat in his 49-year career in the lower house,
having won 16 consecutive terms since first being elected in 1960, including
nine years in the opposition camp before he returned to the LDP in November
2003.
Kaifu, who was prime minister from August 1989 to November 1991, is also the
first former premier to lose a seat since 1963.
Prime Minister Taro Aso, 68, who heads the party, narrowly escaped an
embarrassing defeat, managing to win his 10th term in his Fukuoka No. 8
constituency after a close fight against a DPJ new face.
His predecessors Yoshiro Mori and Yasuo Fukuda also overcame uphill battles in
their constituencies.
Nakagawa, 56, by contrast, apparently failed to regain voters' confidence after
stepping down as finance minister in February after appearing drunk at a press
conference at a Group of Seven financial meeting in Rome.
The son of a former farm minister, Nakagawa's political career had seemed
promising up to that point as he had held several portfolios including
agriculture and economy.
It is not Yamasaki's first election defeat as he lost a seat in the 2003 House
of Representatives election while serving as vice president of the LDP. Until
he was reelected in a 2005 by-election, he served as special adviser to then
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
Kyuma, 68, who became Japan's first defense minister in January 2007 when the
former Defense Agency was upgraded to the Defense Ministry, was defeated by DPJ
rookie Eriko Fukuda, 28, known as the leader of a group of plaintiffs in a
series of lawsuits filed by sufferers of hepatitis C who contracted the disease
through tainted blood products.
Amid the increasing unpopularity of Aso's administration, six of his Cabinet
members had to rely on proportional representation votes to remain members of
the powerful chamber, having lost their single-seat constituencies to DPJ
rivals.
They are Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano, 71, Internal Affairs and Communications
Minister Tsutomu Sato, 57, education minister Ryu Shionoya, 59, consumer
affairs minister Seiko Noda, 48, disaster management minister Motoo Hayashi,
62, and administrative reform minister Akira Amari, 60.
In addition to Yamasaki, 72, two other heads of the party's eight internal
factions -- former Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura, 64, and former Finance
Minister Bummei Ibuki, 71 -- were beaten on their own turfs despite their clout
within the LDP before being salvaged under the proportional representation
system.
Former LDP Secretary General Hidenao Nakagawa, 65, who wielded unparalleled
clout within the LDP, claiming to be the heir to Koizumi's reform drive and
spearheading moves to oust the unpopular Aso in the run-up to the election,
also survived thanks to the second chance.
Former farm minister Tsutomu Takebe, 68, and former Defense Minister Yuriko
Koike, 57, were also former Cabinet members with similar results.
==Kyodo