LOS ANGELES — The people of China and Japan deserve better leadership at the top than they have been getting. But better leadership is not immediately in prospect for either ancient nation. That means relations between the two giant economies will probably get worse, when improvement is urgently needed before some part of East Asia blows up.
Perhaps the Japanese malaise is the more obvious of the two problems. Except for the five-year reign of Junichiro Koizumi (2001-2006), Japan hasn't had continuity at the top since the glory years of Yasuhiro Nakasone (1982-1987). Japanese prime ministers have had all the staying power of seasonal lint, and the result is a political mess. No one can make a tough decision.
It's getting worse. The country's economy is seemingly in permafrost and the morale of the ordinarily proud island nation is barely holding its own. Worse yet, the relentless rise of China as a voracious economic whale reinforces the sense of Japan's epochal decline. No political figure seems capable of pumping life into the Japanese spirit and pulling it all back together.