Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is coming under increasing pressure to resign. One likely scenario, according to sources in the ruling coalition, goes something like this: In early March, after the fiscal 2001 government budget clears the Lower House, he announces his intention to step down, and later that month, with the budget approved by the Diet, his Cabinet resigns.
For all practical purposes, Mori is already a lame-duck prime minister. Yet he seems to be trying to shore up his plunging popularity through an artificial display of leadership on the diplomatic front. If so, he will be doing the nation a disservice.
Mori has aroused public outrage by his callous reaction to the Feb. 9 ramming and sinking of a Japanese fisheries training boat by a U.S. submarine off Hawaii. He continued to play golf after receiving a report of the tragedy.