Can a rookie Cabinet member undergo a political makeover in only five months?

Government officials and bureaucrats are skeptical, but nevertheless they're talking about the new Makiko Tanaka, head of the Foreign Ministry.

In the ordinary Diet session that closed in late June, three economic treaties became the legislative victims of Tanaka's combativeness and were shelved for ratification.

But the three treaties, including investment protection treaties with Pakistan and Mongolia, are expected to be ratified later this month in the current extraordinary Diet session, which opened in late September.

The third is an arrangement with the World Trade Organization concerning Japan's introduction in April 1999 of a controversial tariff scheme for rice imports.

In a low-profile vote, the Lower House Foreign Affairs Committee approved the three treaties on Friday. The full Lower House is expected to pass the measures today, and Upper House approval should come by the end of the month, according to officials of both the government and the Diet secretariat.

During raucous sessions of the Lower House Foreign Affairs Committee in the closing days of the ordinary Diet session, Tanaka apparently felt disgusted with repeated questioning from Muneo Suzuki, her archfoe within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Tanaka then asked the committee chairman to cut Suzuki's speaking time, a move that even many of her LDP colleagues, including Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, criticized as a possible violation of the principle of sharing national powers among the executive, legislative and judicial branches.

Suzuki, a veteran LDP lawmaker from Hokkaido Prefecture, wields strong influence over foreign policy, especially toward the long-standing territorial dispute with Russia over four islands off northeastern Hokkaido, over foreign development aid and even regarding the Foreign Ministry's personnel affairs.

This situation was -- and probably still is -- something that irritates Tanaka.

As a result of the personal animosities between Tanaka and Suzuki, which paralyzed the foreign affairs committee's proceedings for several days just before the close of the ordinary Diet session, ratification of the three treaties was sidetracked.

The treaties now seem to be sailing smoothly toward ratification, and this may be a reflection of a tacit consensus -- or at least a prevailing view -- among ruling and opposition lawmakers as well as within the government that Japan's foreign policy should no longer be affected by spats between the foreign minister and her many opponents.

But a more important reason may be Tanaka's recent low-key approach.

Unlike during the ordinary Diet session, Tanaka now appears to be refraining from uttering any remarks that could spark a controversy. What's more, the once-outspoken foreign minister has been strictly following written answers prepared by her bureaucrats in replying to questions from opposition lawmakers on the committee.

But has Tanaka really changed? Some are answering the question with an old saying:

As the twig is bent, so grows the tree.

Fully aware of the reality that any further controversies would add fuel to calls for her ouster from the ruling and opposition parties, deepen burgeoning divisions within Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's government and put her job in jeopardy, Tanaka may be behaving just like a "hedgehog on the defensive," as one senior government official puts it, that presents its spines outwardly by rolling itself into a ball.