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TIME: Almanac 1995
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<text id=91TT2827>
<title>
Dec. 23, 1991: World Notes:Japan
</title>
<history>
TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
Dec. 23, 1991 Gorbachev:A Man Without A Country
</history>
<article>
<source>Time Magazine</source>
<hdr>
WORLD, Page 31
World Notes
JAPAN
A Setback For Miyazawa
</hdr><body>
<p> No matter how long Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa hangs on to
his post, he is not likely to have many weeks as bad as the last
one. Along with a sharp drop in the Tokyo Stock Exchange,
declining approval ratings in the polls, and insinuations of
financial wrongdoings, he suffered a particularly disappointing
setback when parliament effectively killed a government measure
to let Japanese soldiers serve overseas in United Nations
peacekeeping operations. After harsh criticism in the West for
Japan's failure to participate in the gulf coalition against
Iraq, Miyazawa was determined to ease his country's strict
limitations on military service abroad. The bill was approved
by the Lower House of the Diet after sometimes violent debate,
but when the Prime Minister tried to push it through the Upper
House, support drained away.
</p>
<p> Miyazawa refused to meet opposition demands for closer
Diet review of any deployment with the U.N. He lost the backing
of some in his own party, who feared they would alienate voters
in next summer's election. "Pacifist sentiment, especially
among women, is very strong," said Wakako Hironaka, an
opposition member who supported the bill. "Some people
mistakenly fear that sending troops overseas, even with the
United Nations, means the revival of militarism."
</p>
</body></article>
</text>