During its five-year rule, the administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has completed a number of structural reforms, including the privatization of the postal service. To that extent, the administration deserves high praise.
From the public's perspective, some of the reforms are good, but not all. Among the bad ones is the cutback in expenditures from national coffers for compulsory education in exchange for the transfer of some tax-revenue sources (as part of the national income tax) to local governments (as part of the local residential tax).
The government had originally planned to abolish those expenditures, but amid strong resistance from the education ministry, it reduced the national funding share for teachers' salaries from one-half to one-third. The difference was made up by shifting some tax revenue sources to local governments.