Out with the old, in with the new!

[Koizumi on the left and Ozawa on the right - no political pun intended?!?]

You'll need a crystal ball to find out who the next prime minister of Japan will be; or you can just wait and see. But since Mizusawa Ward, Oshu City native Ichiro Ozawa took over the leadership of Minshuto (The Democratic Party of Japan) recently, Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party hasn't looked so good!

The Asahi Newspaper calls Ozawa, "a hard-line conservative with a penchant for political manipulation." I'm not sure if that is good news for Japan or the world but it should be good for Iwate. It's called the pork barrel!

The last time an Iwatean held the prime minestership was back in 1980 - 82. That was Zenkou Suzuki from Yamada Town on the coast. He is given credit for bringing the bullet train to Morioka. Maybe so but Ozawa was in his cabinet at the time and he can take a lot of credit for that too. After all most of the bullet train stations in Iwate are in the Southern part nearer to Ozawa's hometown.

Stay tuned for further developments!