A question that has grown increasingly popular among politicians in Tokyo's Nagata-cho is: How long is Naoto Kan going to survive as prime minister?
When former Prime Ministers Shinzo Abe and Taro Aso had dinner together Jan. 17, Abe reportedly said, "I think the Kan government will start jolting in March and collapse in June." Aso is said to have agreed.
The conversation may sound like black humor as it comes from the men who bore heavy responsibility for ending the decades of nearly uninterrupted rule by the Liberal Democratic Party and handing over the reins of government to the Democratic Party of Japan, now headed by Kan. Abe was prime minister when his LDP lost badly in the Upper House election in 2007 and Aso was in power in 2009 when his party suffered a resounding defeat to the DPJ.