The long Diet session has come to an end, and politicians have gone on summer vacation. The first half of the latest session was marred by a number of political scandals; during the second half, legislators were busy deliberating on a number of important bills. A sense of vanity, though, pervades the nation's political landscape.
The popularity of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's government, which had remained at about 80 percent for months, plummeted by half after January. Toward the end of the Diet session, his ratings appeared to recover enough to avert a "crisis" that some thought would force the prime minister to choose either to dissolve the House of Representatives and call general elections, or resign his post around September.
It now appears that he will be able to remain in office until next spring, the second anniversary of his assuming power, partly because of the accepted notion that there is nobody else to replace him.