A recently released U.S. congressional report predicted dim prospects for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's economic reform initiative due to the plunge in his public approval ratings and the increasing influence of the Liberal Democratic Party's old guard.
"Because Koizumi's popularity was one of the few weapons he could wield in his efforts to seize the machinery of government away from the LDP's kingpins, the prospects for his economic reform program have become even more clouded," the report says.
For months after rising to power in April 2001, Koizumi's public approval ratings remained well over the 70 percent level. They began plummeting in early February, however, after he dismissed the controversial but highly popular Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka over a dispute with ministry bureaucrats.
The report, released in late June by the the Congressional Research Service, a think tank exclusively working for members and committees of the U.S. Congress, says the United States may have to continue to support Koizumi because there are no alternative politicians in Japan who can promote reforms.