Question

political experts say that the appointment thursday of naoto kan, a former civic campaigner against government corruption, to run the finance ministry does just that, pitting a veteran bureaucracy fighter against the most formidable of the central ministries that have run japan for most of the postwar period.
source: new york times
in this sentence, former means:

• effective in or looking toward time yet to come
• characteristic of or associated with soldiers
• apart from anything else
• of the immediate past

Explanation:

In the context of "former civic campaigner", "former" refers to someone who held that role in the immediate past. The other options do not fit the context.

Answer:

D. of the immediate past