Bobble Heads Of State: As Japan's Leader Fades, Surprising Options Appear.(Periscope)(Yasuo Fukuda)

Byline: Akiko Kashiwagi

It's come to this. Japan's exasperation with a long and largely unbroken string of hapless prime ministers has reached new levels. The current seatholder, Yasuo Fukuda, now has an approval rating of 21 percent, which is lower than that of his widely disparaged predecessor, Shinzo Abe, when he resigned. Indeed, that rating is the second worst of any prime minister in recent years (Yoshiro Mori holds the record low: 16 percent in 2001). Although Fukuda inherited most of his immediate problems from Abe, including an ongoing corporate pension scandal and an unpopular new medical insurance program for the elderly, he's failed to indicate whether he can follow through on his predecessor's promised reforms.

This would redound in favor of Japan's opposition leader, Ichiro Ozawa, if he were not seen as equally inept. Though Ozawa's Democratic Party won a landslide victory in last month's parliamentary by-elections, Ozawa is not a clear front runner himself. According to a recent opinion poll by Mainichi Shimbun, Ozawa bests Fukuda by a mere four points. Experts say Ozawa has hurt his standing with hard-line tactics he's used against Fukuda--such as voting down a string of nominees for the Bank of Japan's governor post--and his inability to present convincing alternatives to Fukuda's policies. A staggering ...