At present, political reforms lies in the hands of the ruling party, the LDP. Knowing the fact that the LDP is considered more as a coalition of barbarians rather than a coherent party due to the struggles among factions that composes it, LDP Prime Ministers had difficulties reaching a consensus with their proposed reforms. Analyzing the Prime Ministers that have ruled over like Koizumi, Abe, Fukuda, all have pursued such reforms of their own concerns. Nevertheless, including the current PM Taro Aso, they all shared the interest in pursuing fiscal reforms although in different ways. For instance, Koizumi Koizumi pushed for new ways to revitalise the moribund economy, aiming to act against bad debts with commercial banks & privatize the postal savings system.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junichiro_Koizumi). While Taro Aso, in contrast with Koizumi's fiscal reform, dumped the former policy and instead adopted a basic policy with the purpose of forming the 2009 fiscal budget and drafting stimulus packages .
Turning our interests in what I call unpopular political reforms, during Shinzo Abe's term as PM, he focused on a reform with the emphasis on the culture, tradition and long history of Japan. He wants to strenghten ties with the US by supporting its coalition warships which the people saw as a violation of the pacifist constitution. Not only did it led to his unpopularity in the polls, a dispute within the party made it difficult for Abe to implement his reform which later became the main reason for his resignation. Japanese people would want safety net policies rather than policies promoting culture and stuff. Although former PM Fukuda avoided committing the mistakes of Shinzo Abe, he also ended his term not so long after he was elected as PM because he sees himself as an impediment in the rightful reforms which prioritizes the people's lives. The abrupt resignation of Prime Ministers like Abe and Fukuda caused political uncertainties. This calls for more extensive fiscal reforms to avoid political vacuum which will affect Japanese economy in a worst possible way.
Looking at the situation of Japan right now, I myself forsee the possibility of Taro Aso's resignation sooner than what is expected by other people. If this happens, Ichiro Ozawa would possibly be the next candidate for Prime Minister as what I am informed of. According to his book "A Blueprint for a New Japan", he viewed reforms(policies) as not the only problem. For him, the problem is rooted with credibility issue, lack of leadership. And that the main cause of lack of leadership is the extreme diffusion of power. The results of this scenerio is evident during Shinzo Abe's term as Prime Minister. A lack of credibility and an unorganized distribution of power turned his political reforms hostile towards the people and to his own party.
It is important that Prime Ministers should consider reforms strengthening not only domestic and international ties but more emphasis should given to those reforms involving the people's lives. These reforms must also consolidate democratic power so that responsibility and power would be evenly distributed.
