The administration of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori managed to survive its greatest crisis Monday night when the governing parties barely voted down a no-confidence motion sponsored by the opposition parties. Tension was mounting toward a final showdown over the motion late Monday night because two LDP faction leaders and their followers appeared to be preparing to vote for the motion despite increasing pressure applied by party executives.

A couple of hours before the expected vote on the motion, however, Mr. Koichi Kato, former secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party and head of the party's second largest faction, and Taku Yamasaki, leader of a smaller faction, decided that they and their followers would abstain from the session rather than vote for the motion. While Mr. Kato described their decision as an "honorable retreat," his words rang hollow. As has typically been the case, the greatest political drama involving the fate of the Mori government ended in a political anticlimax.

This outcome came as a disappointment to the opposition parties, which had hoped that the motion would trigger a Diet dissolution and a division of the LDP, leading to a decisive political realignment in which they would play a central role, possibly with defectors from the LDP. This scenario ended as merely a political pipe dream.

Japan's politics have been heating up since Mr. Kato demanded the resignation of the increasingly unpopular prime minister 10 days ago. Amid such a development, the semblance of political stability that had continued under the Mori administration for the past six months appeared to be collapsing like a house of cards. The mutiny, which was initiated by Mr. Kato and joined later by Mr. Yamasaki, came at a time when the political world has been gripped by a sense of powerlessness. The LDP power struggle touched off by their apparent revolt was expected to turn out to be a blessing in disguise if it broke the deadlock and brought reform and vitality to politics. Indeed, public mistrust of current coalition politics runs so deep that it appears almost irreparable under the present political circumstances. That mistrust stems largely from the shady succession game through which Mr. Mori took over from an ailing Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi in early April. The undemocratic procedure, which was never fully explained to the public, implanted deep doubts in the people's mind over the legitimacy of Mr. Mori's prime ministership. This appears to be one of the reasons why Mr. Kato, Mr. Yamasaki and their followers had thrown down the gauntlet to Mr. Mori.

The power struggle in the LDP only disappointed the public as it ended in a factional game of musical chairs. To win public support, the party needs to conduct itself in ways that meet the public's expectations for political reform. In this sense, the LDP must make a clean break with its traditional way of doing things and listen humbly to what the opinion polls have been saying over the past few months.

The public has been increasingly dissatisfied over the ruling coalition's handling of the economy, which remains sluggish despite the tens of trillions of yen that have been spent over the years in the name of "sustainable recovery." Despite this sentiment, the Mori administration remains dedicated to a policy of massive deficit spending, putting budget reform on the back burner. There is indeed a sense of crisis that the nation will go bankrupt unless something is done to stem the ballooning debt burden.

After Mr. Mori's careless remark on the secret negotiations with North Korea over the alleged abduction of Japanese civilians by North Korean agents hit the headlines, public discontent seemed to near a boiling point. The prime minister further disenchanted the people by his seemingly cavalier attitude toward the resignation of Chief Cabinet Secretary Hidenao Nakagawa over an extramarital affair linked to an antidrug investigation.

As anticipated, Mr. Kato's revolt, carried out against this background, ended up just a "tempest in a teacup" -- a mere power struggle in the LDP. This must have come as a great disappointment to those who may have expected that a passage of the no-confidence motion would lead to a reorganization of the political world.

A power struggle is the stuff of political drama. But the politicians played the factional numbers game once again with little regard for public frustration over protracted political reforms under the current coalition administration. The biggest losers in the 10-day contest of political muscles were Mr. Kato and Mr. Yamasaki, who simply gave up a battle that they said was doomed to end in failure under the prevailing power balance of the LDP.