Junichiro Koizumi, the newly elected Liberal Democratic Party president, set about putting the party's house in order Wednesday by selecting the three lawmakers who will hold the top LDP slots.
Taku Yamasaki, the newly appointed secretary general, is known in political circles as an "earnest worker," a reputation that should serve him well.
Yamasaki, 64, has said in the past that if serious reforms are not carried out, the LDP and Japan will have no future. Now that he holds the No. 2 post in the party, the question of whether he has the ability to make a difference in the party's reconstruction has come to the fore.