Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is expected to step down sometime this month, a year after he took office. Widely criticized for his alleged incompetence and lack of qualification for national leadership, Mori is sometimes called Japan's worst postwar prime minister. Even though Mori expressed his apparent intention to resign almost a month ago, no politician has emerged as a strong contender for his post. The governing Liberal Democratic Party suffers from a leadership crisis.
The lame-duck prime minister last month held talks with U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin. At the Washington summit, Bush told Mori Japan bore some responsibility for the global economic crisis, urging him to push economic structure reform. This was humiliating for Japan.
The LDP is having difficulty finding Mori's replacement because it has fallen behind times and is unable to adapt to changes in public consciousness. It is still swayed by intraparty factions and special-interest groups. The party has few real leaders.