Public interest in daytime live television broadcasts of Diet proceedings -- more often than not shunned for being stiff, weighty and tedious -- appear to have been suddenly piqued.
Even though the broadcasts, courtesy of the public television network, are during daytime working hours, the maiden policy speech by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi earlier this month and subsequent Diet budget committee proceedings have commanded a viewer rating of up to 7 percent -- a level previously unheard of.
The public's curiosity appears to be focused on the histrionics of the blunt-speaking new prime minister and his feisty foreign minister, Makiko Tanaka.