Toshiki Kaifu, back to the obscurity he enjoyed before his party's surprise decision to make him prime minister two years ago, is vowing to continue the fight for political reform that led to his downfall.
Kaifu, who stepped down last month after being ignominiously dumped by his own party, has virtually disappeared from the political spotlight, quietly reassuming his old seat in parliament."Getting used to being just another lawmaker isn't hard at all," he said in an interview with The Associated Press. "This is what my whole career has been about."
That career took a U-turn into the limelight in August 1989, when Liberal Democratic Party leaders plucked him from parliament's back benches to lead them out of a seemingly bottomless quagmire.
At the time, senior Liberal Democratic leaders were tainted by a widespread influence-peddling scandal, and the party had just suffered its worst election defeat after introducing a wildly unpopular sales tax.
"It was an urgent, crisis situation, and the party turned to me to restore the public's trust," said the 60-year-old Kaifu, who caught the eye of party leaders because of his unsullied reputation. "It caught me totally by surprise."
Known more for his penchant for polka-dot neckties than his political savvy, Kaifu subsequently was lambasted by critics who called him everything from a "relief pitcher" to a "political eunuch."
Still, he was popular with the public.
He backed legislation designed to make campaigns less expensive. He also resisted naming scandal-linked politicians to his Cabinet.
But largely because of his lack of a personal power base, Kaifu was frequently under attack for being at the beck and call of the party's scandal-tainted old guard.
Last summer, calls within the party for stronger leadership grew shrill as the government anguished over the Persian Gulf war, the decline of the Soviet Union and chronic trade friction with the United States.
The final blow came early in October, when Kaifu threatened to call elections after his political reform package was killed in parliament.