[snowsislander]

I think Prime Minister Koizumi has proved to be the best and most able of the post-war prime ministers.

[MNJohnnie]

Intresting to note Editorialising pretending to be "news" is a universal trait of the Junk Media

[in hoc signo vinces]

sixty one years of peace and continued prosperity has made Japan a trusted ally of ours.

Food for thought, this alliance has occurred over multiple generations...it didnt happen over night.

[Sonny M]

A buddy of mind who is from Japan keeps comparing Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to former President Reagan.

He views Koizumi to be the most conservative Prime Minister in a long time.

My buddy is also a conservative but I'm not sure how much of this is cult of personality and how much of it is policy based.

[Poundstone]

I'm in Japan now.

Koizumi is the most popular postwar prime minister in Japanese history. He called a snap election last September, an election which turned out to be mainly a referendum on Koizumi's leadership. Result? A massive victory for Koizumi's party, so large that it can now govern all by itself, without relying on its coalition partner.

The source of this article -- the Japan Times -- is politically irrelevant in Japan, not only because it's a leftist publication, but also because it's in English. The English-language press in Japan is like the Japanese-language press in the U.S. -- irrelevant.

[dfwgator]

I think Prime Minister Koizumi has proved to be the best and most able of the post-war prime ministers.

Amen to that. He's great. How could you go wrong with an Elvis fan?

[MistrX]

But Soeya and other observers say the prime minister is not that ideological. Koizumi, who is generally viewed and praised as a "stubborn maverick," has simply stuck to his campaign promise to keep visiting the shrine after he was elected head of the Liberal Democratic Party in April 2001, Soeya argued. Imagine that, a politician who actually keeps his promise.