In politics, as the saying goes, all is darkness just a step down the road. How right they are. When the administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was inaugurated at the end of April 2001, it enjoyed a stellar Cabinet support rating of 80 percent, and the prime minister himself was hugely popular. At the end of January 2002, however, its popularity rate suddenly plummeted 30 points down to 50 percent.

The reason for the nosedive was that the prime minister had stirred public anger by suddenly dismissing Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka, who had been his staunchest ally and a close partner in his administration. Koizumi said that he had dealt with the Diet-stalling conflict between Tanaka and then-Vice Foreign Minister Yoshiji Nogami, as well as the involvement in that conflict of Muneo Suzuki, a member of the Diet from the Liberal Democratic Party who at that time chaired the Lower House Steering Committee, by making all three pay a penalty. Very few people, however, accepted his explanation.

Nogami resigned as vice foreign minister but then made a quick comeback as a senior official of the ministry. Suzuki now faces a grave threat to his political career as cases of his improper involvement in diplomatic affairs have been exposed one after another. But Koizumi's punishment of Tanaka, who was trying to enforce discipline on both the corrupt bureaucrats of the ministry and the obtrusive Suzuki, was a huge blunder that cannot be vindicated.