Obuchi: A politician with behind-the-scenes clout

TOKYO (Reuters): Keizo Obuchi is a veteran politician of Japan's old school.

A foreign affairs novice when named foreign minister in September 1997, Obuchi's real strengths were in his behind-the- scenes clout and leadership of the largest faction in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which he inherited from former prime minister Noboru Takeshita and, 20 years earlier, Kakuei Tanaka, the godfather of Japan's pork-barrel politics.

This, his first major cabinet post, was a strategic step that placed him one heartbeat away from the premiership without having to challenge Hashimoto, a long-time ally.

Born on June 25, 1937, Obuchi became at 26 the youngest person to win election to parliament when he stood in his late father's district in Gunma, north of Tokyo, as a post-graduate student, and successfully held the seat for decades.

Quickly gaining a reputation as a sharp negotiator, he rose through the ranks from Okinawa development minister to chief cabinet secretary.

"He's not a great leader, but a good listener, or adapter, to situations -- and that would probably be better in terms of policymaking. Hashimoto's failure in the last year was to believe in something too much and therefore make mistakes," one Japanese economist, who declined to be identified, said.

In 1993 Obuchi was hand-picked by Takeshita and party king- maker Shin Kanemaru as LDP secretary-general, a key post controlling election campaigns and party funds.

Kanemaru's resignation in an illegal-funds scandal boosted Obuchi to LDP heavyweight status, and the resignation of chosen successor Ichiro Ozawa to form his own party cleared the way for him to seize control.

Although the LDP lost power in 1993, it clawed its way back a year later by an unlikely marriage with the Socialist Party, a long-time enemy. And in 1997, when Hashimoto formed an all-LDP cabinet for the first time since 1993, Obuchi received the Foreign Ministry portfolio due to his leading of the largest faction.

In Japan, Obuchi is best remembered in his role as chief cabinet secretary, when in January 1989 he announced the name of the era just beginning under new Emperor Akahito -- "Heisei" or "achieving peace."

He also served as master of ceremonies at the state funeral for Akahito's father, Emperor Hirohito, when he stammered his opening words.

Soft-spoken and bespectacled, Obuchi is a devotee of Aikido, the martial art.