Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has gone from bypassing his party's power brokers to pleading with them -- unsuccessfully.
The change in tactics, as well as the result, indicates that his clout within the Liberal Democratic Party is on the wane.
That's the widespread view in Nagata-cho, Japan's political epicenter, now that Koizumi has tabbed Yoshiyuki Kamei, as minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries.