It says something for the current Japanese psyche that the resignation of the prime minister and his replacement by an ideological opposite have produced no effect whatever on the Tokyo stock market. Mr Tomiichi Murayama held office for only 18 months and his critics would add that it is a wonder he lasted so long. In Japanese terms, 18 months is respectable enough. His successor, Mr Ryutaro Hashimoto, is the eighth prime minister in just seven years. Because of his age and ineffectiveness Mr Murayama's departure did not come as a surprise and yet it was not expected. His coalition government is solid and there are 18 months to go before elections are due. At 71 years of age he decided that he "had used up all (his) strength" and the new year was a good time to pass on the baton. A dignified and exemplary resignation which western politicians would do well to note.
Mr Murayama's premiership, however, will not be memorable for many positive reasons. It included the Kobe earthquake where the government reaction was both slow and inept, the terrorist gas attacks which, arguably, could have been averted through better police intelligence, no end to the recession and the biggest banking scandal in the country's history. Problems like these require imagination, effectiveness and energy; Mr Murayama was short on all three. As leader of the relatively small Social Democratic Party he would have had difficulty imposing his will on the cabinet, but it would have helped if he had, at least, demonstrated his will more often. To his credit, however, he had the courage to apologise for Japanese aggression in the second World War at the same time as Mr Hashimoto was busy paying homage to Japanese belligerence.
Mr Hashimoto was the Minister of Industry and Trade and leads the LDP party which is by far the largest in the coalition. He is everything that Mr Murayama was not: flamboyant, combative, charismatic and provocative characteristics hitherto unheard of in Japanese prime ministers. He seized the LDP leadership only three months ago and could be relied upon, as Prime Minister, to seize the initiative from day one. His timing could not have been better, since the Japanese are desperate for strong leadership.
Among the immediate problems on the new Prime Minister's desk are the four year long recession, the continued slump in property prices and record unemployment is, quite rightly, one ignores the official figures. There is a risk, though, that Mr Hashimoto will concentrate on the old LDP practice of building up support among the farmers and other interest groups and to hell with everyone else.
The split in the LDP two years ago so weakened the party that it gave the premiership to socialists, at the other end of the ideological spectrum. The LDP, not surprisingly, longs for a return to single party government. The next election, however, will be fought on new rules which will return only one member per constituency. The days of multi seat constituencies, where candidates could get elected with as little as 15 per cent of the vote, are over. Many LDP candidates in the past were elected only because the party drenched voters with cash bribes. Mr Hashimoto will have an uphill battle.