Hamilton: In the space of just twenty seconds, the Kobe earthquake revealed to the world another Japan. A vulnerable, incompetent Japan. Where whole neighbourhoods burned, while fire-tenders sat in traffic jams, where troops waited in their barracks until being asked to join the rescue effort, where the safety pledges of an all-powerful construction industry proved worthless.
Hamilton: The Kobe earthquake crippled a city but it's also shaken a whole set of assumptions about he way this society should work. It's exposed a political system unable to make prompt decisions during times of peril.
Kenichi Ohmae, author and politician: We've been on the auto-pilot because of the past success ...
Hamilton: Author, Kenichi Ohmae says Kobe has set Japan up for a financial collapse which 'government-by-bureaucrats won't be able to stop.
Kenichi Ohmae: Nobody has been in charge. We have changed Prime Ministers four times in the past eighteen months and nothing has changed. That has now peeled off and now we see the real country called Japan. And it is a huge turbulence. Without a real leadership, the pilot, this country cannot soft land.
Hamilton: For some, this man is the only politician in Japan strong enough to steer the nation out of danger. Ichiro Ozawa.
Ichiro Ozawa: We are criticised as a country without a face. Although we have lots of money, nobody knows what we are thinking. This creates the impression Japan is dangerous.
Hamilton: When Ichiro Ozawa's 'Blueprint for a New Japan" was published two years ago, the American CIA was the first to translate it.
The book sets out a four-point plant to - break the power of the country's bureaucracy, deregulate and open up the economy, create a genuine two-party political contest, and expand Japan's military role under United Nations supervision.
Part of Ozawa's blueprint emerged form events played out far from these shores.
In 1990, the United States and it's allies went to war against Sadam Hussein. 'Desert Storm' was the first call-to-arms under the so-called 'new world order' and Japan wasn't there.
Asked to help with the liberation of Kuwait - and the oil fields on which this economy depends - Tokyo sent a big, fat cheque, but not one soldier.
Ozawa was a member of that government.
Ichiro Ozawa: I really felt helpless. I felt that other countries could not regard Japan as a 'normal, but a special country, a selfish country.
Hamilton: After 'Desert Storm', Ozawa pushed through Parliament a law ending Japan's post-War taboo on military service abroad. Already admired for his ability to fix trade disputes, the PKO bill won him enormous credit in Washington. Others began to see Ozawa as a valuable ally. Although he holds no ministerial post, he's the one to whom foreign visitors pay court. The Keating Government finds a strong supporter of APEC and a leader sympathetic to Australia's Asian aspirations.
Ichiro Ozawa: I think your country will have to forge stronger links with Japan and other Asian countries, and become increasingly open as one of the members of Asia.
Hamilton: Ichiro Ozawa has polarised Japan with his forthright views and tough methods. His battles with the media are legendary. After six months negotiating access, today Foreign Correspondent gets to meet the man.
He's flown from Tokyo to the city of Fukuoka to pick election candidates for his new party. Ozawa prefers to avoid the limelight. A target of the xenophobic extreme right, his security is unusually severe.
The party faithful, asked to hand over their money at the desk, are then forced to summit to body-searches.
The greeting line leads to a stiff photo opportunity, with a star who
seems to be loathing every minute of it. We are still on probation, expected to look, but not approach.
Hamilton: A long way to come for the brush off.
When late 20th Century Japan laughs at itself, it's politicians are part of the joke. Comedian Issei Ogata explores the absurdities of a society that has staked everything on economic success.
The salary worker desperate to squeeze a little joy from his three-day holiday in Hawaii.
The company president bankrupted by the recession and forced to work as a builder's labourer. The salesman who loses his mind when he can't find his client in a car park.
Issei Ogata: The salaryman knows his work, his turf, what he has to do today. But once he strays beyond the familiar, he loses his grip. All my characters are on a path to self-destruction.
Hamilton: The comedian's critique of a people unable to think for themselves, controlled in all aspects of their lives, is exactly what Ozawa says must change. But Japanese voters are still more comfortable with politicians who share their fear of change.
It's several weeks before we're finally summoned to Ozawa's parliamentary office.
Kobe has happened, and Socialist Prime Minister Murayama is under fire for botching the emergency. The message of reform has a new edge.
The Socialists have always been against dispatching the Self Defence Forces in an emergency. They're still very reluctant. As a result, it's said the response was delayed, causing a higher death toll.
Hamilton: You talk about the need for Japan to become a normal country, what are the new circumstances which make it necessary to change the way Japanese politics is conducted?
Ichiro Ozawa: If we continue to use only Japanese ideas or methods, forming cooperative relations with other countries will become increasingly difficult.
Hamilton: Why should people see you as a politician of the new in Japan?
Ichiro Ozawa: Japanese politics, individual leadership is still not admired. We have a Japanese-style consensus society and there our politics is stuck. That's what needs to be changed.
Hamilton: But to succeed, Ichiro Ozawa must overcome his own tainted past.
Five years later, a re-born Ozawa steps out of the political grave. With a group of followers, he's deserted the LDP and raised his banner over a motley collection of Opposition groups. Their New Frontier Party is launched with all the hoop-la of an American-style convention.
The baggage of the past is eagerly cast aside.
But Ozawa's power now relies on financial backing from the Soka Gakkai, the most successful of Japan's new religious sects. Victory at the polls will depend on how he can exploit a new system of single-seat constituencies. And a law that, for the first time, funds election campaigns out of the public purse, based on a party's previous money raising efforts.
Man: So, will this become cleaner? Absolutely not, absolutely not. Because the condition is you have to show money to get the money. I can't believe this.
Hamilton: 1995 is proving to be a traumatic year for the Japanese. They may wonder whether the sun is setting on their half century of stability and prosperity. The Kobe earthquake, an economy strangled by the high yen, even mass murder on the Tokyo subway.
On this Coming of Age Day, 20 year olds flock to the nation's temples and shrines to seek god's blessing. Born the lucky generation, they're attaining their majority at a time of deep mistrust of politics.
Talking with them, we're hardly reassured. Politics they say has drifted out of reach of ordinary people, they bemoan the corruption, but can't see how it might change. Most of all, they're confused about the choices they'll face at the next election. It's doubtful, says this young woman, whether somebody meeting our expectations will turn up.
Soon the real political stage-show will be playing in electorates all over Japan. The promise of a 'new politics' will be on the lips of every candidate. Leadership and reform, or just an old dance to divert the masses?
The reviews will start coming in, as the lights go down.
Hamilton: The Kobe earthquake crippled a city but it's also shaken a whole set of assumptions about he way this society should work. It's exposed a political system unable to make prompt decisions during times of peril.
Kenichi Ohmae, author and politician: We've been on the auto-pilot because of the past success ...
Hamilton: Author, Kenichi Ohmae says Kobe has set Japan up for a financial collapse which 'government-by-bureaucrats won't be able to stop.
Kenichi Ohmae: Nobody has been in charge. We have changed Prime Ministers four times in the past eighteen months and nothing has changed. That has now peeled off and now we see the real country called Japan. And it is a huge turbulence. Without a real leadership, the pilot, this country cannot soft land.
Hamilton: For some, this man is the only politician in Japan strong enough to steer the nation out of danger. Ichiro Ozawa.
Ichiro Ozawa: We are criticised as a country without a face. Although we have lots of money, nobody knows what we are thinking. This creates the impression Japan is dangerous.
Hamilton: When Ichiro Ozawa's 'Blueprint for a New Japan" was published two years ago, the American CIA was the first to translate it.
The book sets out a four-point plant to - break the power of the country's bureaucracy, deregulate and open up the economy, create a genuine two-party political contest, and expand Japan's military role under United Nations supervision.
Part of Ozawa's blueprint emerged form events played out far from these shores.
In 1990, the United States and it's allies went to war against Sadam Hussein. 'Desert Storm' was the first call-to-arms under the so-called 'new world order' and Japan wasn't there.
Asked to help with the liberation of Kuwait - and the oil fields on which this economy depends - Tokyo sent a big, fat cheque, but not one soldier.
Ozawa was a member of that government.
Ichiro Ozawa: I really felt helpless. I felt that other countries could not regard Japan as a 'normal, but a special country, a selfish country.
Hamilton: After 'Desert Storm', Ozawa pushed through Parliament a law ending Japan's post-War taboo on military service abroad. Already admired for his ability to fix trade disputes, the PKO bill won him enormous credit in Washington. Others began to see Ozawa as a valuable ally. Although he holds no ministerial post, he's the one to whom foreign visitors pay court. The Keating Government finds a strong supporter of APEC and a leader sympathetic to Australia's Asian aspirations.
Ichiro Ozawa: I think your country will have to forge stronger links with Japan and other Asian countries, and become increasingly open as one of the members of Asia.
Hamilton: Ichiro Ozawa has polarised Japan with his forthright views and tough methods. His battles with the media are legendary. After six months negotiating access, today Foreign Correspondent gets to meet the man.
He's flown from Tokyo to the city of Fukuoka to pick election candidates for his new party. Ozawa prefers to avoid the limelight. A target of the xenophobic extreme right, his security is unusually severe.
The party faithful, asked to hand over their money at the desk, are then forced to summit to body-searches.
The greeting line leads to a stiff photo opportunity, with a star who
seems to be loathing every minute of it. We are still on probation, expected to look, but not approach.
Hamilton: A long way to come for the brush off.
When late 20th Century Japan laughs at itself, it's politicians are part of the joke. Comedian Issei Ogata explores the absurdities of a society that has staked everything on economic success.
The salary worker desperate to squeeze a little joy from his three-day holiday in Hawaii.
The company president bankrupted by the recession and forced to work as a builder's labourer. The salesman who loses his mind when he can't find his client in a car park.
Issei Ogata: The salaryman knows his work, his turf, what he has to do today. But once he strays beyond the familiar, he loses his grip. All my characters are on a path to self-destruction.
Hamilton: The comedian's critique of a people unable to think for themselves, controlled in all aspects of their lives, is exactly what Ozawa says must change. But Japanese voters are still more comfortable with politicians who share their fear of change.
It's several weeks before we're finally summoned to Ozawa's parliamentary office.
Kobe has happened, and Socialist Prime Minister Murayama is under fire for botching the emergency. The message of reform has a new edge.
The Socialists have always been against dispatching the Self Defence Forces in an emergency. They're still very reluctant. As a result, it's said the response was delayed, causing a higher death toll.
Hamilton: You talk about the need for Japan to become a normal country, what are the new circumstances which make it necessary to change the way Japanese politics is conducted?
Ichiro Ozawa: If we continue to use only Japanese ideas or methods, forming cooperative relations with other countries will become increasingly difficult.
Hamilton: Why should people see you as a politician of the new in Japan?
Ichiro Ozawa: Japanese politics, individual leadership is still not admired. We have a Japanese-style consensus society and there our politics is stuck. That's what needs to be changed.
Hamilton: But to succeed, Ichiro Ozawa must overcome his own tainted past.
Five years later, a re-born Ozawa steps out of the political grave. With a group of followers, he's deserted the LDP and raised his banner over a motley collection of Opposition groups. Their New Frontier Party is launched with all the hoop-la of an American-style convention.
The baggage of the past is eagerly cast aside.
But Ozawa's power now relies on financial backing from the Soka Gakkai, the most successful of Japan's new religious sects. Victory at the polls will depend on how he can exploit a new system of single-seat constituencies. And a law that, for the first time, funds election campaigns out of the public purse, based on a party's previous money raising efforts.
Man: So, will this become cleaner? Absolutely not, absolutely not. Because the condition is you have to show money to get the money. I can't believe this.
Hamilton: 1995 is proving to be a traumatic year for the Japanese. They may wonder whether the sun is setting on their half century of stability and prosperity. The Kobe earthquake, an economy strangled by the high yen, even mass murder on the Tokyo subway.
On this Coming of Age Day, 20 year olds flock to the nation's temples and shrines to seek god's blessing. Born the lucky generation, they're attaining their majority at a time of deep mistrust of politics.
Talking with them, we're hardly reassured. Politics they say has drifted out of reach of ordinary people, they bemoan the corruption, but can't see how it might change. Most of all, they're confused about the choices they'll face at the next election. It's doubtful, says this young woman, whether somebody meeting our expectations will turn up.
Soon the real political stage-show will be playing in electorates all over Japan. The promise of a 'new politics' will be on the lips of every candidate. Leadership and reform, or just an old dance to divert the masses?
The reviews will start coming in, as the lights go down.