Word: koizumis
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...kidding. Increasingly, Japan looks unwilling to roll over and allow China to dictate terms in Asia. Under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, it is modernizing its military and strengthening its strategic alliance with the U.S. ("The relationship between our countries is the best it's ever been," said Baker last week.) Notoriously, Koizumi has ignored China's demands that he cease visiting the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, where the souls of some war criminals from World War II are memorialized...
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has never been popular with other politicians, even those in his own Liberal Democratic Party. But the days when he could count on strong public support seem to be slipping away as well. According to a poll conducted by the Asahi newspaper, Koizumi's approval rating has fallen to 33%, the lowest since he took office nearly four years ago. No single event seems to have triggered the drop-off; instead, a number of slow-burning factors have quietly eroded his support, which ran as high as 84% shortly after he became Prime Minister...
...hasn't helped that Koizumi also seems reluctant to take a stronger stand against North Korea, despite the rogue state's nuclear ambitions and its refusal to discuss the fate of Japanese citizens abducted in the 1970s and '80s. Many people are annoyed too by his autocratic and, some say, extraconstitutional decision to keep Japanese troops in Iraq...
...Historically, approval ratings below 30% have meant a swift ouster for a Japanese Prime Minister. But it's hard to see this as the end of the Koizumi era. The PM has recovered from shallower depths before, helped by a shrewdly timed foreign trip here, a Cabinet reshuffle there. "I think he is preparing another diplomatic surprise," says Toshikawa, "and this one may involve mending relations with China...
...Meanwhile, 53% of respondents to the Asahi survey said they still want Koizumi to serve until the end of his term in 2006; and when asked to name someone they would rather have as PM, 66% gave no answer. In other words, the Japanese have never liked this Prime Minister less?but they can't imagine being led by someone else...