Cabinet reshuffles are generally called a gamble prime ministers take to reverse dismal approval ratings, but in recent years most of them have failed miserably.
Since Junichiro Koizumi left office in September 2006, the administrations of the Liberal Democratic Party and the now ruling Democratic Party of Japan have seen six prime ministers. Four of them decided to go for broke when their support ratings started to plunge, in a desperate attempt to cling to power.
Before Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda added new faces Friday, the most recent reshuffle was last January, when Naoto Kan booted his chief Cabinet secretary, Yoshito Sengoku, and transport minister Sumio Mabuchi. Both had been censured in the opposition-controlled Upper House after confidential video footage of collisions between a Chinese trawler and Japan Coast Guard vessels near the Senkaku Islands was leaked onto the Internet by a coast guardsman.