On Japan's "Cleopatra Island" Hashimoto has refuge

KIKAI ISLAND, Japan, July 9 (Reuters) - There is at least one spot in Japan, dubbed "Cleopatra Island" for its languid beauty, where embattled Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto can safely lay his head.
But to be absolutely sure, he should bring some money.
Surrounded by coral reefs and clear water, a sub-tropical paradise to outsiders, this tiny island is a place where big spending on public works by Hashimoto's Liberal Domestic Party has become the lifeblood of the 9000 residents.
Others may denounce billions of dollars spent over decades on "pork-barrel" projects nationwide as a reason for Japan falling this year into its first recession since World War Two.
But there, 1,100 km (688 miles) southwest of Tokyo, where the Pacific Ocean meets the East China Sea, there is no argument about the value of big spending ahead of Sunday's polls for the Upper House of parliament.
It is to traditional LDP supporters like those on the island that Hashimoto is looking to for backing in an election that has become almost a referendum on his economic leadership.
With no industry, most residents live on sugar-cane farming, and money for projects like roads and bridges has poured into the island in the decades since the World War Two.
"Public works projects are the key to the survival of this island," said Ryoji Nomura, the island's mayor.
Farming is dying as young people abandon island life to work in mainland cities -- a trend that makes public works even more crucial.
There is an irony in what has become of Kikai Island.
It was one of the first places touched by an epoch-making visit to Japan in the 1850s by Commodore Mathew Perry with his "Black Ships" -- a spquadron of U.S. Navy vessels -- that forced Japan to abandon two centuries of isolation.
Perry was so impressed by by the natural beauty of the island that he called it "Cleopatra Island".
Despite its beautiful landscape, the population has been on the decline since the war, dropping to some 9,000 in 1998 from more than 18,000 in 1940.
"Almost all boys and girls leave after graduating from high school and they never come back because no jobs other than farming are available," said town official Hidemori Naoshima.
"Something must be done or there will be only ageing me and women on this island," he said.
The LDP, which has dominated Japan's politics for most of the post-war period, is cashing in on the islander's thirst for governmeont subsidies. About nine in 10 islanders traditionally support the LDP, locals say.
Five candidates, including two from the LDP, are vying for two Upper House seats in the constituency of Kagoshima on the southern main island of the Kyushu, which includes Kikai Island.
Kichio Inoue, running on an LDP ticket for a fifth six-year term, has vowed to get more goverment subsidies to improve the islander's infrastructure.
"Public works projects are indispensable when the life and economy of this remote island is in a severe condition," Inoue, a 75-year-old former state minister, said in a campaign speech.
Hiroshi Moriyama, the other LDP candidates, says the island needs more public money to match wealthy regions in Japan.
While Inoue is expected to win a seat, 53-year-old Moriyama is in an uphill battle with Kazuto Kmiyama, an independent backed by the Social Democratic Party nad the Democratic Party.
Kamiyama, the incumbent, has denounced the LDP for public works spending and demanded that Hashimoto step down.
The island's chronic reliance on cash from the central government stems from Japan's defeat in World War Two.
In the last month of the war, the U.S. military dropped fire bombs, killing more than 100 islanders and burning down hundreds of homes. Following Japan's defeat, Kikai Island was ruled by the U.S. military for eight years.
Special measures to promote the island expire next March and the LDP has pledged to renew them if it wins on July 12.
Apart from government subsidies, there is a 40 billion yen ($285 million) project to build a huge underground dam to revitalise farming and lure back young people.
"I am quietly and humbly hoping that my son will come back to the island," said Tamao Mitsukura, a 71-year-old sugar-cane farmer. Mitsukura's 40-year-old son works in Tokyo.
Not all islanders are optimistic.
"I really doubt young people will come back because of the dam," said Fukutoshi Asazaki, the owner of a supermarket.
Residents are also locked in a battle over a plan to build a communications fasility called the "Elephant Cage" that could be used by the Japanese and U.S. military.
Local authorities say the facility, designed to detect hostile aircraft, would create jobs and revise the economy.
But anti-war activists say poverty on the island is being exploited and making it a target for attack in a war.
"Why Kikai Island? Why not an uninhabited island somewhere else?" said Kuniaki Maruyama, a Christian pastor.
($1=140 yen)