In spring 1997, the American news magazine Time published a special issue titled "The New Japan." The subtitle was "A rising generation of risk-takers and rule-breakers is stirring the country from its slumber."
Prominent among the mavericks was a promising young politician named Naoto Kan.
Time was highly impressed with him. So were a lot of people. A year earlier, as health minister from a marginal opposition party brought grudgingly into a floundering coalition, Kan had boldly exposed his ministry's sordid collusion with drug companies marketing profitable blood products known to cause AIDS. Soon he was back in opposition, bent on reform. His instrument was a new party he helped found, called the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).