From the start of the recent Lower House election campaign it was predictable that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's theatrics -- his constant references to magic "kaikaku" (reform) and the alleged benefits from postal-service privatization -- would have its inevitable mesmerizing effect on Japan's emotional electorate. But why did the opposition parties fail to stage a de-mesmerizing counterattack?
I have vivid memories of Koizumi five years ago waving hair and hands to tell spellbound audiences how official borrowings then at the 700 trillion yen were a national calamity and that annual deficit bond issues had to be capped at 30 trillion yen.
Today official borrowing has ballooned to close to 900 trillion yen and deficit bond issues are close to 35 trillion yen. Mistaken economic policies also forced Japan into an unneeded recession with its dreadful toll in bankruptcies and suicides. If Japan's economy today is finally making a muted recovery, that is due mainly to China, a nation Koizumi has gone out of his way to antagonize, and retirees drawing down on surplus savings.