Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party, of which Fukuda was elected sosai or director-general to replace Abe, has ruled the country with a couple of brief interruptions since it was formed in 1956. Its head automatically became the prime minister when it controlled a majority in the Lower House of the Diet, and that party leader had been elected in fact by powerful faction chiefs until Junichiro Koizumi came to power in 2001.

Koizumi was a maverick with leadership. He and his neo-Conservative supporters changed the ruling style of the country to carry on reform to make Japan a “normal country.” That means he wanted to get Japan back in world politics as a power it used to be before World War II. They wanted more say in international affairs and that is why Japan demands that it be made a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.

Koizumi was able to force all factions — there were at least nine — to cease to function and anointed Abe as an heir to continue all the policies necessary to revamp the government. Abe failed to live up to everybody’s expectations and quit after the LDP lost control of the Upper House of the Diet or the Senate.

Fukuda and Taro Aso were the two contenders for the DPP leadership to succeed Abe. Aso was supported by his own small faction, while Fukuda won the endorsement of all the other factions of the party. As a matter of fact, Fukuda and Aso vied with Abe for the same leadership to step into Koizumi’s shoes in 2006, but had to drop out in the face of the anointed heir. Japan reverted to its faction-dominated politics with the end of the brief Abe stint.

As Fukuda said he was too old to compete with Abe when he withdrew from the 2006 race, he is truly so to cope with hard tasks facing Japan now.

The Democratic Party, headed by Ichiro Ozawa, won control of the Upper House of the Diet. Fukuda’s nomination of the Bank of China governor was rejected. A few of his Cabinet ministers had to resign for involvement in a spate of scandals.

He has failed to deal with North Korea. He also has problems coping with a rising China that poses to surpass Japan as the world’s second largest economy in a few years. He has to readjust relations with the United States, while failing to solve the touchy problem of a national pension system. The Japanese economy has not been sufficiently stimulated.

As if all these questions were not enough hard nuts to crack, Fukuda is confronting an emboldened opposition that is pushing for a new general election to oust the disarrayed ruling party from power.

Should Fukuda be forced to call an election of a new Lower House, his LDP might lose a majority in that chamber, where the prime minister is elected.

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