Vital reform depends on Koizumi's election gamble
It is not uncommon for political parties to turn to the appeal of high-profile people to boost their election chances. Favourite choices tend to be film stars and sports stars. An example is former movie actor Ronald Reagan, better remembered as a two-term Republican president of the United States. Another is California's Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, still better known as the Terminator.
The British Labour Party did its image no harm by selecting Oscar-winning actress Glenda Jackson, and the Conservatives were represented in parliament for a time by two-time Olympic 1,500-metres gold medallist Sebastian, now Lord, Coe.
Now, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has introduced a daring adaptation of the ploy in a snap election called to win backing for his controversial plan to privatise Japan Post, the biggest savings institution in the world with 330 trillion yen ($23.2 trillion) in assets.
In a bid to block the re-election as independents of male dissidents from his ruling Liberal Democratic Party who helped defeat the post office privatisation bills in the last parliament, he is running a number of high-profile women candidates against them under the party banner.
In a conservative country that has the lowest representation of women in politics, this is a high-stakes gamble. Political scientists say Mr Koizumi is taking a risk that his 'madonnas for reform', as he has called them, will be rejected by electoral districts with which they have had no local connection.
The media-savvy prime minister has chosen powerful women who themselves are no strangers to the media. They include Yuriko Koike, a former television news presenter who is also his environment minister. Another is former Miss Tokyo University and fashion model Satsuki Katayama, who became the first female budget examiner at the male-dominated finance ministry. And he is said to have his eye on Olympic speed-skating medallist Seiko Hashimoto, who already sits in Japan's upper house.
Mr Koizumi has answered accusations of cynical use of women by also enlisting a male media celebrity to run against party rebels. Takafumi Horie, founder of the internet portal Livedoor, will run against former LDP heavyweight Shizuka Kamei, who has started his own party.
If this glamorous political 'hit squad' can help deliver a convincing election victory for Mr Koizumi, it would revive his economic reform programme, which has been undermined by the ruling party's conservative old guard.
The aim of the massive post office privatisation is to free up public savings for investment to help the nation's economic development. With a huge national debt and millions leaving the workforce as baby boomers reach retirement, Japan is ripe for more economic reform, for example in taxation and social security policy.
