BBC

 

Last month, Shinjiro Koizumi, a Japanese lawmaker who is the second son of popular former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, grabbed headlines after he announced his marriage to a TV personality, and considered the possibility of taking paternity leave after the birth of their child.

It was a rare move in a country where women are still expected to lead their children's education, despite official efforts to improve gender equality. But it is far from the first time Mr Koizumi has found himself in the spotlight.

At the age of 38, Mr Koizumi, often referred as Shinjiro to distinguish him from his father, is the subject of constant media coverage, and regularly described as a serious candidate for the country's top job.

And, unsurprisingly, he was back in the news this week, after being named environment minister in a reshuffle by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, becoming the third-youngest minister in a Japanese cabinet since World War Two.

Now observers are keen to see how he will perform.

"I have compared him to a 'surfer' who looks very good to the spectators on the shore but never tries to put out to sea," political analyst Atsuo Ito told the BBC.

"We will see how capable he truly is now that, as a minister, he cannot avoid the rough waves from the public."
 

'Young guy in a hurry'

"Well-known among America's so-called Japan hands," according to the Japan Times, Mr Koizumi has a master's degree in political science from New York's Columbia University and worked as a researcher at the Washington DC-based think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"While Koizumi's youth, looks, sometimes populist rhetoric and media presence win him many admirers," the newspaper said, "critics note these are different qualities to those needed to govern and get things done as a cabinet minister".

Mr Koizumi, from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, was elected to the lower house in 2009, winning the seat vacated by his father. He is the fourth generation of the Koizumi family to hold a parliamentary seat. Until now, the most prominent position he had had in the government was as parliamentary vice-minister for reconstruction of the tsunami-hit Tohoku region.

He has previously hinted that accepting an important post too soon was a risk. But a few around him believe his eyes are already on the premiership, and he may not be willing to wait a lot to fight for it - Mr Koizumi is often rated in polls as the politician voters would most like to see as prime minister.

"He's a young guy in a hurry," one unnamed source told Reuters.