Obuchi: Solid Leader

Keizo Obuchi became Japan's prime minister in July 1998 to almost universal disappointment: one political analyst suggested he was about as exciting as cold pizza.

The uncharismatic political insider, the critics said, lacked the pizzaz to last more than a few months in the job.

The critics were wrong.

But before falling ill on April 2, Obuchi, 62, had established a solid record of action: a massive, unprecedented public spending plan to jar Japan out of recession and a string of hard-won legislative victories.

Obuchi was hospitalized immediately, and government officials announced the following day that he was in a coma and had been put on artificial respiration. Speculation quickly grew about the search for a successor.

The results of Obuchi's policies have been mixed. While the Japanese economy is clearly on the mend, all the spending has given the country an enormous fiscal deficit. Support for his government has been dropping.

But most seem to agree that one thing is undeniable: he proved he was up to the job. At the pinnacle of his popularity, last summer, analysts had only praise for his first year in office.

"In the economy, foreign policy, and getting legislation approved, I think Obuchi deserves pretty high marks," said Takashi Inoguchi, a professor of politics at Japan's prestigious Tokyo University.

It is easy to underestimate Obuchi. While other top politicians had grabbed headlines, Obuchi has toiled behind the scenes and by the book, working his way up the Liberal Democratic Party ranks.

A graduate of Tokyo's prestigious Waseda University, Obuchi won election to Japan's powerful lower house of Parliament in 1963 at the age of 26 - inheriting, in common Japanese fashion, the seat held previously by his father. He's been elected to the seat ever since.

Obuchi first served as a Cabinet official in 1979, when he was selected to jointly head the Management and Coordination Agency and Okinawa Development Agency.

In 1993, he became the Liberal Democrats' secretary-general, one of the three key party posts, under Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu. A year later, Obuchi took control of the biggest of several rival factions in the LDP, succeeding former Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita.

He became foreign minister in 1997 - a post considered a stepping stone to the premiership.

Obuchi has never described himself as a big-shot, at least in public. He once reportedly compared himself to a "noodle shop between two skyscrapers," referring to two of his protégés, former prime ministers Yasuhiro Nakasone and the late Takeo Fukuda.

That humble image is often cited as a key to his success. Instead of the hard-driving style that is often frowned upon in Japan, Obuchi favors low-key consensus-building.

In addition to his economic policies, he also has used his skills to push a number of tough packages through the parliament, inluding passage of controversial U.S.-Japan defense guidelines that boost Tokyo's regional security role.

He cobbled together an unwieldy three-party ruling coalition. That latest coup, however, backfired. Polls indicated rising disapproval ratings, with voters citing unease with the growing clout of the coalition.