Japan's new political season will open in late September, when an extraordinary Diet session starts after the summer recess. Politics in the upcoming year will be marked by three potential turning points.
The first turning point is expected to come when the extra Diet session closes in December. Debate in the four months leading up to the end of the year will likely focus on public-works projects that are subject to a major review, legislation that would ban influence-peddling by lawmakers and a supplementary fiscal 2000 budget.
Major administrative reform will be implemented in January when the central bureaucracy is reorganized into a Cabinet office and 12 ministries and agencies. Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's second Cabinet, launched in June, is widely considered a caretaker government, and a major Cabinet reshuffle is likely in December in preparation for the government reform. With his leadership qualities in serious doubt and his Cabinet's public-approval ratings remaining abysmally low, Mori could be forced out of office in December.