Through the hail of defending fire he flew, his squadron close behind. It had always risked becoming a suicide mission when Japanese political heavyweight Kato Koichi rebelled against Prime Minister Mori Yoshiro of his own Liberal Democratic Party. The party hierarchy fought back with fury, threatening Kato and his allies with expulsion and political oblivion. For 10 days, the two sides glared at each other. Then, just hours before the vote's scheduled start on Nov. 20, Kato blinked, and merely abstained.
Humiliating rout is more like it.
The Harvard-educated former diplomat, who speaks fluent English and Chinese, is lauded for his grasp of policy and willingness to speak his mind. As head of the LDP's second-largest faction, a little patience and a little more shmoozing with fellow party leaders should have seen him in the top job in the near future. But Kato is an advocate of small government who opposes mindless public-works spending to revive the economy, putting him in conflict with the factions that dominate the party. But the public counts for nothing in a faction fight, and his enemies had the numbers. If he had voted against Mori as he promised, Kato would have lost, but he might have been a defeated hero.