
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 30, 1993                   TAG: 9307300167
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: TOKYO                                LENGTH: Short

SAMURAI SON HEIR APPARENT TO HEAD JAPAN

Morihiro Hosokawa, descendant of one of Japan's most distinguished samurai families and grandson of the country's pre World War II prime minister, became the apparent new prime minister in a historic step Thursday.

Hosokawa, who launched his tiny, anti-corruption Japan New Party only a year ago, was nominated by leaders of the unwieldy seven-party coalition to head the government they are virtually certain to form early next month.

The lower house of the National Diet, or parliament, is scheduled to meet the first week of August in what now looks like a mere formality to elect as prime minister either Hosokawa or the candidate of the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party. - Knight-Ridder/Tribune

by CNB