Tokyo eats lunch early, but I know I have a problem when Junichiro Koizumi asks to meet me at 11.30am. Our rendezvous is at the Aqua Lounge on the top floor of the luxurious Imperial Hotel, where he has booked a private room. Since the lobby is packed with elderly Japanese ladies on holiday, and Koizumi’s resemblance to Richard Gere has not faded with age, this strikes me as a wise precaution.
I am ushered into an over-large space with four low armchairs slung around a coffee table. I am on time, but to my discomfort the prime minister of Japan from 2001 to 2006 has clearly been waiting. Koizumi’s famous bouffant is as wavy as ever although it has been allowed to turn a natural grey. “They say we’re supposed to do this over lunch,” he says, after gruff hellos. “I don’t eat lunch.”
This is not good. My heart sinks as I confront the options: force-feed an elder statesman or submit a “Green Tea with the FT” from Tokyo, gourmet capital of the world. “I quit parliament in 2009. Since then I eat twice a day. Morning and evening. No lunch,” he goes on, then looks at me accusingly. “I skipped breakfast today.”