Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's resignation was only logical. The Liberal Democratic Party knew that, with him at the helm, it stood to lose the next Lower House elections. The resignation lets the party give another party president/prime minister the chance to improve the LDP's record before the elections. But is there enough time?
Taro Aso, a former foreign minister, will likely become the next prime minister. What other choice is there? Isn't Aso about the only senior LDP official who has not been prime minister yet? So, we should not expect any drastic improvement in people's lives.
The problem is that the people of Japan do not get to vote directly for prime minister. A direct vote would force candidates to actually come up with a plan, present it to the people and put up a fight against opposition candidates instead of just taking the job and saying "I'll try to do my best." Until the political system is restructured to allow that, we will continue to see the prime minister "relay race" from one Lower House election to another, which, except for the Koizumi era most recently, has characterized Japanese politics.
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