In the past year, Japan has been rocked by political turmoil — especially the devastating defeat of the ruling coalition in the July 29 Upper House election, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's abrupt resignation in September and Mr. Yasuo Fukuda's ascent to power. An attempt to form a grand coalition between the Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party of Japan shook domestic politics.

But it was irresponsible behavior by politicians and bureaucrats that had a more direct impact on people's lives and perceptions. The result was deepening public mistrust of them.

Perhaps the government's failure to deliver its promise on the pensions has most contributed to this deepening mistrust. Before the Upper House election, Mr. Abe pledged that the government would finish identifying some 50.95 million hard-to-identify pension premium payment records by the end of March 2008. He also promised that the work would continue until "the last person" is identified and the "last yen" is correctly paid. Mr. Fukuda took over Mr. Abe's promise.