The outlook for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's administration, which previously enjoyed high approval ratings and looked set for continued success, has taken a dramatic turn for the worse.

The downward slide began at the end of January, when Koizumi dismissed Makiko Tanaka as foreign minister. Since then there have been scandals involving Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers Muneo Suzuki and Koichi Kato, revelations about shoddy discipline among bureaucrats in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and a report that the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries committed a serious blunder in its handling of the mad cow disease problem. Koizumi's failure to display leadership in dealing with these issues has sparked massive criticism from the public.

In the nine months following its inauguration at the end of April 2001, the Koizumi administration enjoyed a record high approval rating of around 80 percent. But after the sacking of Tanaka, it suddenly plummeted to around 50 percent, and has continued to fall in the months since then. At the time of the 30-point drop, I quoted the famous saying by Shojiro Kawashima (1890-1970), a former vice president of the LDP, that "in politics, all is darkness just a step down the road." There have been no signs of a recovery in the rating since that time.