As the approval rate for the government of Prime Minister Taro Aso plummets, bureaucrats have begun to distance themselves from him in favor of establishing closer ties with the No. 1 opposition Democratic Party of Japan, which they apparently think has at least a fair chance of displacing Aso's ruling Liberal Democratic Party in the next general election.

This tendency is particularly conspicuous within the Finance Ministry. In 1993, then high-ranking officials of that ministry cooperated fully with Ichiro Ozawa, current head of the DPJ, as he helped launch the first non-LDP government in nearly four decades. There are signs that incumbent Finance Ministry officials have helped the DPJ prepare its "manifesto" for the general election to be held no later than September.

On Dec. 8, the front pages of the three major vernacular newspapers — Asahi Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun and Yomiuri Shimbun — carried the outcome of their respective public opinion polls, showing that the approval rating for the Aso government had plunged to between 21 percent and 22 percent. This was tantamount to disqualifying Aso from leading the LDP in the election campaign. This led bureaucrats of the central government ministries and agencies in general, and of the Finance Ministry in particular, to reconsider whether to fully support the administration.