The United States and Japan are plagued by political chaos. The fierce U.S. presidential race ended in victory for George W. Bush after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the recounting of disputed ballots in Florida. In Japan, a disturbingly wide gap exists between the fragile support Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori gets from the public and the strong endorsement he receives in the Diet.
According to a public-pinion poll released this week, the approval rate for the Mori Cabinet was 19 percent, with the disapproval rate standing at 65 percent. Last month, the Diet overwhelmingly voted down an opposition-sponsored no-confidence motion against the Mori Cabinet. This discrepancy threatens to undermine Japan's parliamentary democracy.
The confusion over the U.S. presidential election stems from the power that individual states have, as well as esoteric U.S. election and legal systems. Use of peculiar ballots apparently compounded the chaos.