Kaori Kawashima
Kaori Kawashima | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Prime Minister of Gylias | |
| In office 1 February 2008 – 1 February 2012 | |
| President | Laura Varnaþ Carmen Dell'Orefice |
| Preceded by | Mathilde Vieira |
| Succeeded by | Toni Vallas |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 8 March 1968 Mişeyáke, Mişeyáke, Gylias |
| Political party | National Unity Party |
| Alma mater | University of Mişeyáke |
Kaori Kawashima (Miranian: 香織 川島; Gylic transcription: Kaori Kauaşima; born 8 March 1968) is a Gylian politician. She served as Prime Minister of Gylias from 2008 to 2012. Her term saw a continuation of the moderate reformist approach of her predecessor Mathilde Vieira, and was notable for the reestablishment of the Progressive Alliance–Liberal Union coalition.
Early life
Kaori was born on 8 March 1968 in Mişeyáke. She came from an affluent Miranian Gylian family. Her father worked as a trader on the Gylian Stock Exchange, and her mother worked as a curator at a local art museum.
She had a cosmopolitan upbringing, with frequent vacations in Kirisaki, Akashi, and Cacerta.
She attended the University of Mişeyáke, graduating with a degree in political science. She subsequently held various jobs, including an apprenticeship at Clothes Bureau, a trader on the Gylian Stock Exchange, a model, and a union representative for the General Council of Workers' Unions and Associations.
She is a strong admirer of Donatella Rossetti, choosing her government as the subject of her university dissertation, and consequently joined the National Unity Party, since it was "the Rossetti family's party".
Legislative career
Kaori was elected to the Mişeyáke City Council in 1996. Her campaign attracted attention for her youth and good looks, an aspect she embraced by releasing a photobook of her gravure idol work and using the tongue-in-cheek slogan "too pretty to be a councillor?".
She went on to win further elections in 1998, 2000, and 2002. She was notable for her pioneering embrace of the internet as a campaigning tool, and capitalising on her online popularity to draw attention to local issues and her legislative proposals.
As a city councillor, Kaori focused on issues of green urbanism, healthcare, and elderly care. She worked closely with the Green Party and Urban Movement to pass environmental policies, such as increasing Mişeyáke's parks and strengthening urban agriculture. She later built a close collaboration with Mayor Lisa d'Arville thanks to their agreement on these issues.
She decided to move to federal politics in 2004, winning election to the Chamber of Deputies for a local circonscription. The Mişeyáke Metro Mail wrote that "although her elegant image preceded and overshadowed her, she was a discreetly effective legislator", quoting colleagues who praised her for keeping a low profile and being very well-informed.
She served in the Permanent Committee on Labour, where she devoted great efforts to ingratiating herself with organised labour.
When incumbent Prime Minister Mathilde Vieira announced her retirement in late 2007, Kaori entered the Liberal Union primary election. She presented herself as the "left Donatellist" candidate, positioning herself to the left of Mathilde. In a crowded field, her relatively unknown stature became an advantage: her existing internet notoriety led party members to see her as a "fresh face", and she wasn't overly identified with particular factions like other candidates, allowing her to emerge as a unity candidate. She ultimately won the primary after multiple rounds of IRV.
Prime Minister of Gylias
During the 2008 federal election, Kaori's campaign associated herself closely with the outgoing Mathilde Vieira government, and implicitly promised an end to the "liquid Parliament" era. She benefited from close ties with organised labour and her positioning to the left of Mathilde. She continued the LU's string of plurality victories since 1990, winning its largest with 80 deputies. In her own circonscription, she won a convincing victory, with double the first preference votes of her second-place rival.
She brought an end to Mathilde's "plural coalition" and formally reconstructed the alliance with the Progressive Alliance that dated back to the Golden Revolution, albeit now with the LU in a senior role. However, her LU–PA–IRAM coalition still fell short of a majority; she sought support from leftist Non-inscrits, particularly the Green Party, LSD Party, Pirate Party, and Love, Nature, Democracy to make up the difference.
Domestic policy
Kaori largely continued Mathilde's technocratic, moderate reformist approach in office. She retained several veteran ministers in her cabinet, including Sakura Kusatsu as economy and finance minister, and hired Leále Tiekat as her main economics adviser at the Cabinet Office.
She inherited good economic conditions from her predecessor, and maintained them. Average GDP growth for 2008–2012 was 3,2% and unemployment remained low.
Notable policies during her tenure included expansion of renewable energy and recycling, increased funding for research and development, and a reform of public auto insurance to speed up the phase-out of fossil fuel vehicles.
Foreign policy
The defining foreign policy issue of Kaori's tenure was the Zemplen War. Kaori strongly supported Ruvelka in the conflict, in line with the traditional close ties with Ruvelka. She also succeeded in convincing the Common Sphere to diplomatically support Ruvelka, successfully working together with dissimilar leaders such as conservatives Anna Carbone (Akashi) and Harald Møller (Delkora) and moderate Henrietta Ianelli (Cacerta).
She undertook an official visit to Ossoria in 2011, reflecting the gradual dissipation of tensions after the Ossorian war crisis. She was the first Gylian Prime Minister to meet with High Queen Tara.
Public image
Kaori was a style icon in office, known for her trademark lavallière blouses and black jackets. She was a more low-key Prime Minister than her predecessor, and had a contemplative image that earned her some comparison to Filomena Pinheiro.
She was known for effectively capitalising on her cosmopolitan upbringing and attractiveness, to the point that her opponents generally avoided highlighting these.
Her public standing was somewhat paradoxical. Throughout her term, she had an unexpectedly low recognition, with up to a third of voters in opinion polls not recognising her name. She was lampooned in The Prism as "the invisible prime minister". At the same time, she enjoyed consistently good ratings, with a majority of voters approving of her performance.
Cultural commentator Hanako Fukui argued that Kaori was harmed somewhat by positive stereotypes of Miranian Gylians, which made her "bland competence" seem more disappointing to the public. Keie Nanei similarly noted that she was "sandwiched" between Mathilde Vieira and Toni Vallas, and by comparison lacked a "compelling central narrative".
End of term
Kaori's popularity did not transfer to her government: polls showed the public increasingly thought the LU had been leading the government too long and lacked ideas. The LU's middling performance in the 2010 regional and municipal elections reinforced this perception.
She came to share this view. She said in a GTV1 interview, "I thought very deeply, very seriously about the criticisms I heard that I had no vision and was just 'steady as she goes', nothing more. As the years went on, I started to agree with them. I realised I didn't have a good answer to this criticism."
On 11 November 2011, Kaori delivered a televised speech announcing she would not run for reelection and would resign as the LU's foresitter. One of its best-known quotes was, "I have done my best as your Prime Minister, but my best wasn't good enough, and for that I want to apologise to you all."
Kaori became the second Prime Minister to serve a single term, after Filomena Pinheiro.
Later life
Kaori continued to serve as a deputy after her premiership, winning reelection in 2012 and 2016. She declined offers to join the Toni Vallas government, reasoning that she couldn't do a better job than its incumbent ministers.
She retired from the Chamber of Deputies in 2020.
Private life
Kaori is married with no children, and is primarily a practitioner of Concordianism.
In popular culture
In the mid-2010s, her name unexpectedly became an internet meme in Delkora. In an interview, Cybrian First Minister Astrid Marett emphasised her rejection of moving into federal politics, and offhandedly added, "Look at the fat lot of good that did Kaori." Subsequently, Delkoran pundits and netizens started using Kaori's name as a political equivalent of the Peter principle.
Astrid strongly criticised this, writing on her Cloudverse that Kaori was not incompetent, emphasising that "Kaori concluded of her own accord she was not cut out to be a Prime Minister, and had the humility to say so and leave the stage. She should be a model to us all for that alone." During an official visit to Gylias, she met with Kaori and expressed regret at the way her statement had been twisted.
Kaori is mentioned in the first episode of the Syaran series Damjana. The squad hears a news report of her backing Ruvelka in the conflict, prompting PFC Dzvonko Soposki to exclaim "Of course that slant-eyed bitch sides first with the Ruvelkans!". He then calls her a "bloody red" and gets into an argument with the Gylophile Private Angjelko Matliev, who corrects him that Kaori is actually a liberal.