Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who completed his third year in office on Monday, is already one of the nation's longest-serving postwar prime ministers. Although the stratospheric popularity he enjoyed early in his administration is no more, media polls still give him considerably high approval ratings of over 50 percent.
A combination of factors appear to be contributing to this. First, the economy is steadily recovering -- not because his structural reform agenda is succeeding well but because the private sector is making a comeback on its own. On the political front, Mr. Koizumi faces no powerful opposition. The divided Democratic Party of Japan is not posing much of a challenge to his administration. Nor is the Liberal Democratic Party's old guard challenging his leadership as it once did.
In the diplomatic arena, Mr. Koizumi has bolstered the Japan-U.S. alliance on the basis of a close personal relationship with President George W. Bush. The prime minister has remained firm on his Iraq policy, rejecting Islamic militants' demands for a withdrawal of Japanese troops in exchange for the release of Japanese abductees. Their safe return home has boosted his popularity.