Former Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi died last Sunday, 42 days after suffering a stroke and falling into a coma. He was 62.
When he took power in the summer of 1998, he was derided by Japanese and foreign media for his perceived mediocrity. One report said he had the personality of a "cold pizza," a label that stuck. His Cabinet's initial popularity ratings were abysmally low, standing at less than 30 percent. In those days, Japan was in the middle of a banking crisis.
However, the Cabinet's approval ratings began to rise in the fall of 1998, when the government succeeded in securing the enactment of a series of packages to deal with the banking crisis in an extraordinary Diet session. In February 1999, the Liberal Democratic Party, led by Obuchi, formed an alliance with the Liberal Party, under Ichiro Ozawa, boosting the ratings further. In the summer of 1999, the ratings rose to nearly 50 percent.