It Takes a Thief…

I was in Kasumigaseki [as a bureaucrat] for almost 34 years. So the administrative authorities (役所) can’t fool me with their fraud and trickery.
—Hidesaburo Kawamura, DPJ Lower House candidate in Miyazaki 1st District

Most of the attention in Miyazaki 1st District has been trained on the infighting between Nariaki Nakayama, the LDP incumbent who announced his retirement but has subsequently reconsidered his decision, and Mitsuhiro Uesugi, whom the Miyazaki Chapter had selected in the meantime to replace him. Nakayama has the support of his faction, which has produced three of the last four Prime Ministers and whose support was crucial to Prime Minister Aso’s victory last year. This can only help Hidesaburo Kawamura, the DPJ candidate. Kawamura spent his entire working life in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries until December 2006, when he resigned to run in the Miyazaki gubernatorial race, which he lost to comedian Hideo Higashikokubaru.