Immediately after Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi fired Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka early Jan. 30, the public approval rate of his government plummeted to about 50 percent from the unprecedentedly high 80 percent it had maintained for nine months since its inception in April. There may be no rebuttal to the assertion that Tanaka was worth 30 percentage points in the extraordinarily high popularity of the Koizumi Cabinet.
This incident led to the exposure of alleged scandals involving Muneo Suzuki, a Liberal Democrat and former chairman of the Lower House Steering Committee, who is said to have exerted undue influence over the Foreign Ministry, bringing to light years of cozy relations between politicians and bureaucrats, in general, and between Suzuki and Foreign Ministry officials, in particular.
Despite these incidents, Koizumi remains aggressive, saying his determination to implement structural and political reform has not changed whatsoever. He has launched a counterattack against critics, arguing that only a handful of lawmakers belonging to his Liberal Democratic Party are responsible for the alleged scandals and reaffirming his slogan of enforcing discipline and promoting reform.