Japanese politics might be "the game across the street," but its players could teach ours a thing or two about gumption and color. Here's femme fatale Makiko Tanaka on Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi:
"He is like a street performer," she told reporters. "He will do various things like juggling, breathing fire and riding a unicycle, but when things go against him, he just folds up his wrapping cloth and withdraws."
Such talent! Tanaka, as you may recall, switched from the Liberal Democratic Party to the Democratic Party of Japan after falling out with LDP leadership and has no shortage of sour grapes. Koizumi, meanwhile, has presided over Japan's most remarkable progress as a benevolent world power, as well as an economic boom that even the most cautious observers believe is no happy accident:
Japan's economy is "gathering strong momentum" as rising corporate profits generate job growth, the central bank said in its monthly report, adding it was more optimistic about the outlook for the first time since April."Rising production and corporate profits are starting to spread to the labour market," Bank of Japan Governor Toshihiko Fukui said in Tokyo. The bank yesterday dropped the word "gradual" from its description of a recovery for the first time since the nation's asset price bubble burst in 1991.
Prime Minister Koizumi bested a no-confidence vote thrown at him by the DPJ and two other minority parties, and seems likely to continue his slow drive toward bank and market reform. The game goes on.