HONOLULU — Japanese Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka has been engaged in a very public battle with Foreign Ministry officials since her appointment in April. While the controversy has focused on Tanaka's gaffes and her seeming inability to serve effectively as foreign minister, the real clash is more fundamental: It is a power struggle between traditional Japanese politicians and reformers.

The real target of the media broadsides is Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Ironically, while Tanaka has been a firm supporter of the prime minister, she has also become an unwitting ally of the antireform forces within the ruling coalition and Koizumi's own party. Her mistakes have strengthened the position of the old guard, and the prime minister's own weakness means that he must keep her in her post no matter how unsuitable she may seem. In the end, the prime minister has been trapped by the same factional politics that imprisoned his predecessors.

When Tanaka claimed the foreign minister's portfolio, she already had many enemies. Her lack of experience and knowledge of foreign policy upset some; her sharp tongue, which won her public support, alienated others. The fact that she was a woman no doubt irritated some more. Finally, her lack of respect for the foreign policy bureaucracy and her determination to clean up corruption within the Foreign Ministry turned the people whose support she needed to govern against her.