Goetterdaemmerung

摘要

Hosokawa, Hashimoto, Koizumi. The names change. But the aspirations of Japan's political leaders stay the same. Curbing bureaucratic power has been at the top of almost every Japanese government's agenda since Morihiro Hosokawa took office in 1993. Equally unchanging has been the record of failure. Mr Hosokawa was gone in less than nine months. Ryutaro Hashimoto settled for cosmetic change and lost the support of the voters. Now Japan's latest prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, is launching another assault on the bureaucrats' kingdom.