This year in the U.S., Presidents Day will be the fifteenth of February. I thought I’d take this opportunity to introduce Japan’s equivalent of a president. In Japan, instead of a president, the head of government is the prime minister. In Japanese, the prime minister is called そうりだいじん. In order to qualify as a prime minister of Japan, you have to be at least age twenty-five, be of Japanese nationality, and be a “civilian”. By civilian, the prime minister must not be in the Japanese navy or army. However, historically this “civilian” stipulation hasn’t always prevented a military officer from being a prime minister.

The role of prime minister in Japan comes with certain powers. The prime minister can appoint members of the Cabinet and even dismiss Cabinet members, overturn court injunctions, and is the commander in chief of the Japanese military. Of course, the prime minister’s powers are restricted by the House of Representatives. If the House of Representatives adopts a motion of no confidence, the prime minister can be ousted from office. Therefore the prime minister must have the vote of confidence from the House of Representatives to remain in office.

The current prime minister is Yukio Hatoyama (鳩山由紀夫 or はとやまゆきお). His nickname is “alien”., a name he earned for his quirky personality and hairstyle. He graduated with a Ph.D in engineering from Stanford University. Hatoyama is descended from a long line of politicians. His first run for office was in 1986. Initially when Hatoyama first entered his career as prime minister, his approval ratings were high. His popularity began to drop when it was discovered he had falsified the source of some of his campaign contributions.

Some other notable Japanese prime ministers include Shigeru Yoshida (吉田茂 or よしだしげる) Yoshida served an unprecedented non consecutive five terms. He was responsible for Japan’s post war economic recovery. His grandson is actually Tarō Asō (麻生太郎 or あそうたろう), also a former prime minister. Then there’s Junichiro Koizumi (小泉 純一郎 or こいずみじゅんいちろう) who served from 2001 to 2006. He was known as an eccentric leader of the Liberal Democratic Party and the first to deploy Japanese troops (to Iraq) since WWII. Of course there are other leaders, but we’ll have to close this post for now. Until then, またね.