CAMBRIDGE, England -- Japan is going through an interesting period of political change. Or is it? A Japanese colleague in Cambridge who was in Tokyo a couple of weeks ago came back to say that it was only an interlude and that the government of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi would only last a few months, after which the old men in suits would take over again. The patriarchal leaders of the factions are regrouping, he said, and planning their moves to regain power.
This analysis does seem to fit the case of Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka. To an outsider, she more than anything else represents Japan's political dichotomy -- the conflict between the old guard, which has taken the Japanese economy and polity into decline but does not seem to have recognized it, and the new guard of younger people who want to leave the old system behind in the 20th century.
The foreign minister is being attacked for wanting to put a stop to the clubbish tendencies of the men in her ministry, for wanting to economize on ministry expenditures, for questioning the effectiveness of Japan's aid program, for suggesting that important neighboring countries' sensitivities should be taken into account and even for wanting to think her thoughts aloud -- privately. All good things, surely?