Word: abely
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...headline measure by which a nation is often gauged - the effectiveness of its political system - this whale is reduced to a minnow. Witness the resignation of Yasuo Fukuda after a lackluster year as Prime Minister. In terms of political reform, Fukuda was a failure; so was his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, and if there are any who have high hopes for Fukuda's likely successors, they are keeping them mightily well hidden...
Fukuda became the second Japanese prime minister in a row to throw in the towel with under a year in office (Shinzo Abe did the same last year) and the third to do so without holding a general election. Few prime ministers have been able to rise to the pop star status of Junichiro "the reformer" Koizumi, whose time in office saw Japan taking a more vocal role in global politics. But Fukuda was quitting for the sake of his organization, the Liberal Democratic Party - and he may have a strategy in mind...
...gracious host would throw the match, but Fukuda might want to think twice before dropping his paddle: a display of national athletic prowess against an old rival might be just the tonic he needs to revive his moribund prime ministership. Since taking over from the hapless administration of Shinzo Abe in September 2007, Fukuda's team has managed to look even more inept and out of touch than Abe's on issues ranging from Japan's faltering economy to the appointment of a new central-bank governor. Initiatives by Fukuda's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) have been bottled...
...protests in major Chinese cities, typically frosty political relations between the two countries have been warming up a bit - and because of China's growing economic power, it's crucial to Tokyo that this trend continues. (China last year surpassed the U.S. as Japan's largest export destination.) Like Abe, Fukuda has avoided angering Beijing by refraining from official visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japanese war dead, including 14 convicted Class-A war criminals from World War II. But the delicate relationship between China and Japan contains many potential flash points, among them disputed exploration rights...
...summit goes well, though, Fukuda could yet turn around his struggling administration. Abe, his predecessor, was most popular right after his successful visit to Beijing in October 2006. Similar good vibrations could give the current Prime Minister time to reshuffle his Cabinet and survive until July, when the spotlight will be on Japan as it hosts a G-8 summit. That could "slow the erosion of [Fukuda's] support," Curtis says. "That's what he has to do if he's going to stay in office much longer." Says Phil Deans, an international-affairs expert and assistant dean at Temple...