The administration of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, inaugurated just five months ago, faces in the coming year a real test of its ability to achieve its most urgent goal: lifting the economy out of two years of negative growth. A failure to meet that challenge could further erode public confidence in government.
In trying to meet that commitment and other policy priorities, Mr. Obuchi will have a new ally in Mr. Ichiro Ozawa, head of the Liberal Party. If everything goes well, a coalition government of the Liberal Democratic Party and the LP will come into existence soon.
The question is how effectively this conservative coalition will steer the nation. Another key question is how things will develop within the LDP as it prepares to elect its new president in the autumn. Recent developments have attracted particular interest because the current mathematics in the Lower House mean that an LDP president will certainly take the prime minister's office again.