Nov. 9 marked the 10th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, which led to the end of the Cold War. The international situation, liberated from ideological confrontations, has changed a great deal since then.
For Japan, 1989 also marked a historic turning point, starting with the death of Emperor Showa immediately after the New Year holidays. After Japan entered the Heisei Era, the Recruit bribery scandal came to a head, forcing the Liberal Democratic Cabinet of Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita to resign en masse and throwing Japanese politics into turmoil.
In the past 10 years, Japan has been ruled by nine prime ministers. The Liberal Democratic Party's single-party rule, under the Cabinets of Takeshita, Sosuke Uno, Toshiki Kaifu and Kiichi Miyazawa, ended in 1993, when the LDP lost a general election. Japan then entered an era of coalition governments. The non-LDP coalition governments of Morihiro Hosokawa and Tsutomu Hata were followed by the LDP-dominated coalition Cabinets of Tomiichi Murayama and Ryutaro Hashimoto.