C00175740
 Page: 1     of 30
 FBIS Concatenated Daily Reports, 1990
 Document 6 of 12                                                 Page   1
 Classification:   UNCLASSIFIED       Status:        [STAT]
 Document Date:      29 Dec 90        Category:      [CAT]
 Report Type:      Daily Report       Report Date:
 Report Number:    FBIS-EAS-90-251    UDC Number:
 Headline:  KYODO Profiles Kaifu, Cabinet Ministers
 Source Line:  0W2912135690 Tokyo KYODO in English 1324 GMT 29 Dec 90
 FULL TEXT OF ARTICLE:
 1.  [Text] Tokyo, Dec. 29 KYODO--Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu said
 after he took office in August 1989 that the number 29 has determined
 his fate as a politician and called for support over the next 29
 years.
 2.  While he may not achieve 29 years in office--he would be 88 in
 the year 2018--the number 29 has appeared time and again in his
 career.
 3.  Most recently, he decided to reshuffle his cabinet Saturday,
 December 29 and he did.
 4.  The boyish-looking Kaifu, who turns 60 on Wednesday, favors the
 number 29 because he graduated from Waseda -University--in the 29th
 year of the Showa era on the Japanese calender, 1954, and was first
 elected to the House of Representatives at the age of 29 in the 29th
 general election. His room in the Diet office building also bears 29,
 which he calls his lucky number.
 5.  When Kaifu became Japan's youngest lawmaker after being elected
 to the lover house in 1960, he vowed to become prime minister 29
 years later. He made good on his pledge last August after his two
 predecessors stepped down over sex and money scandals and his party's
 loss of the upper house to the opposition.
 6.  He was born in 1931 in Nagoya, central Japan, where his father
 owned a photographic studio. He volunteered for the wartime youth air
 corps when he was a high school student but World War II ended before
 he entered the corps.
 7.  The prime minister, who had been regarded as a stopgap leader,
 was chosen primarily because of his youth, eloquence, and clean
 record in hopes of improving the image of the scandal-tainted Liberal
 Democratic Party.
 8.  Kaifu, whose trademark is a polka-dot tie, served twice as
 education minister before becoming premier. He also served as deputy
 chief cabinet secretary under the late Takeo Miki, his mentor, who
 INC
 Approved or Release
 UNCLASSIFIED
 C00175740
 Page: 2     of 30
 FBIS Concatenated Daily Reports, 1990
 Document 6 of 12                                                 Page   2
 was in office from 1974-76.
 9.  He loves reading history books and is interested in unidentifed
 flying objects (UFOs).
 10. Kaifu met his wife, Sachiyo, in the office of another Diet
 member, where she was working as a clerk. They have one son, Masaki,
 who works for Kaifu as a secretary, and one daughter, Mutsumi, who is
 studying for the bar exam.