Mr. Junichiro Koizumi leaves the center stage of Japanese politics Tuesday, after five years and five months in power. He can claim some major accomplishments under the banner of structural reform. He also has created problems that must be overcome by the new administration in the years to come.
Apart from his policy-related legacies, whether positive or negative, the biggest change he wrought was a new style of political leadership and the political discourse accompanying it. The leadership was strong and the discourse was forceful and clear-cut. But the discourse was also shallow in substance. Some called it "one-phrase politics." It was the linchpin of his strong public popularity and smacked of populism.
When Mr. Koizumi became prime minister, the biggest challenge was how to reduce the huge amount of nonperforming loans held by banks -- a carryover from the nation's economic bubble in the latter half of the 1980s. Despite resistance from major banks, the Koizumi administration set the end of March 2005 as the deadline for halving the percentage of their bad loans. The administration's efforts bore fruit. It was declared in May 2005 that the percentage of bad loans had declined to a normal level. Certainly this was an accomplishment.