If you’ve been paying attention to Japanese politics, you know that Yasuo Fukuda became the country’s new prime minister last week. You may not know, however, that a University alum played a key role in Fukuda’s selection.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stepped down on Sept. 12 after a shaky year in office, leaving the governing Liberal Democratic Party with a leadership crisis. While former Foreign Minister Taro Aso was the early favorite to fill the vacancy, Fukuda quickly gained the support of most of the party’s key members.
Among those whose support helped bolster Fukuda’s run was current Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura, who spent a year studying at the University in 1967 as an exchange student.
Machimura, 62, was appointed Foreign Minister by Abe on Aug. 27, reassuming a post he had filled under Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi from September 2004 to October 2005. As the Foreign Minister, Machimura has fostered close relations with the United States.
According to The New York Times Mr. Machimura, the new foreign minister, “said he was confident that a special law allowing Japan’s Self Defense Force to deploy refueling vessels in the Indian Ocean to assist in the war in Afghanistan would be extended beyond its Nov. 1 expiration date.”
Machimura told the Times that the U.S.-Japan relationship remains a cornerstone of the country’s foreign policy.
Machimura has received two honorary degrees from the University at the most recent Commencements. In addition to his award last May, then-President Doug Bennet presented Machimura with a hat and a rugby ball, as a tribute to Machimura’s extra-curricular activities.
“Mr. Nobutaka Machimura has had a distinguished career in public service any way you look at it,” said University Alumni Director John Driscoll ’62. “In talking about the Commencement ceremony, he expressed a continuing willingness to help Wesleyan if at all possible; great news to an alumni director.”
Still, many Japanese alumns do not even realize that one of their country’s most visible political figures has ties to the University.
“I learned [that Machimura had attended the University] a few years ago at a reception hosted by the Freeman-Wesleyan Foundation,” wrote Kay Hiyama ’60, who lives in Japan. “Mr. Machimura attended and gave a short talk referring to his old days at Wesleyan. Recently, when Mr. Machimura was re-elected to assume the Foreign Affairs Minister [position], the Tokyo Shinbun [newspaper] and the Sankei Shinbun [newspaper] mentioned Wesleyan but no reference was made by major Japanese newspapers.”
Hiyama claims that while the University might be anonymous in Japan, the values of the liberal arts education are beginning to be championed.
“It is quite true and well recognized by the Japanese intellectuals that what the Japanese college students seriously need is liberal arts education,” he said.
However, for some, the bottom line is politics, not alma mater.
“I’m surprised that somebody who had experienced the liberal arts education of Wesleyan would affiliate himself with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (known for conservatism, closed-mindedness, and showing signs of gender and racial discrimination at times, in my opinion),” wrote Ken Hijino ’99 in an e-mail.
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