Junichiro Koizumi: Gerald Curtis (26)

One evening at dinner with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who at the time was in his fourth year in office, he said to me that he hadn't expected to be leader for so long. When he took office in 2001, he said, he thought that his government might not last more than six months; all he could do was to give his best every day for as long as he could.