"Koizumi is toast"

[Taro Toporific]

The writing is on the walls....
Yesterday, I saw generic anti-Koizumi posters on the streets in Harajuku...

Japan's Koizumi nears political nadir
KNIGHT RIDDER / Mar. 16, 2003
... "Koizumi is toast," concluded Peter Tasker, a fund manager and longtime political analyst. "People liked Koizumi because he was amusing; he was a TV personality. But his reforms have been half-hearted and the economy has gone from bad to worse."
"He's awful; there's no hope for us in Japan to have any political leadership," ....
Koizumi's decline has been quick and brutal. When he took office nearly two years ago, the wiry-haired Koizumi portrayed himself as a maverick who would shake up the political system and force painful reforms to rejuvenate the economy.
But he has repeatedly shied away from the reforms he once advocated, while the nation's economy has declined.

[cstaylor]

... what do the people expect? If they really want a change, vote out all members of the Hashimoto faction of the Jimento (the chief obstructionists)... but unfortunately, since Hashimoto-ha makes up over half of the Jimento, that would pull Koizumi from power anyways.

If the Japanese youth put 1/10th the energy they expend protesting a possible war with Iraq into protesting their own government's domestic policies, and got out there and actually voted, maybe something would change.