Japan's Koike says time could come for female PM

By Linda Sieg

TOKYO (Reuters) - Former defense minister Yuriko Koike isn't saying she wants to become Japan's first female prime minister, but she isn't ruling it out, either.

Koike, 55, is among a clutch of lawmakers whose names have been floated as possible contenders for Japan's top job if unpopular Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda is replaced before an election due by late 2009, but which could come sooner.

"I have never expressed such an intention (to run for prime minister)," Koike, who served just eight weeks as Japan's first woman defense minister last year, told Reuters in an interview this week.

"That is an option that is impossible in the (ruling) Liberal Democratic Party," added Koike, dressed in a dark pin-stripe suit and pausing during the interview to answer her pink cell phone.

"I don't have money and I'm not a thoroughbred. I'm not the grandchild of a prime minister," she added, referring to an LDP tradition of tapping scions of political dynasties for the post.

Fukuda is the son of a prime minister and his predecessor Shinzo Abe was the grandson of a premier, as is former foreign minister Taro Aso, seen as frontrunner to get the position next.

Political analysts say Koike is a long-shot for the post, and the former TV announcer, who graduated from Cairo University and speaks fluent Arabic and English, would certainly face considerable obstacles in a political arena dominated by men.

Still, Koike said the tide could shift.

"When the LDP changes, there will be various chances, not only me," Koike said. "At the necessary time ... the person who reforms or leads the country might just happen to be a woman"

Whether Koike gets a shot at the premiership also depends on the fate of Fukuda, whose ratings have sunk below 20 percent on doubts about leadership in the face of a divided parliament, where the opposition-controlled upper house can delay laws.

Some pundits think the 71-year-old moderate may be nudged out after hosting a Group of Eight summit in July.

Koike steered clear of predicting Fukuda's future, but said a general election was highly unlikely this year given the risk that the ruling bloc would lose.

CLEARER VISION

Koike said Fukuda should articulate his policy vision for the nation more clearly in order to revive his sagging ratings.

"He needs to show a vision to the people, a vision of Japan, what direction it should go in and what it should do," she said.