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The Hatoyama Cabinet's approval rating is falling rapidly. In the Lower House election last August, people in Japan rejected the Liberal Democratic Party's long years of reliance on vested interests in favor of the Democratic Party of Japan for a change of government.

From the outset, however, many people worried about the DPJ's policies, as postelection opinion polls typically showed that only a comparatively small number of people supported its policies.

As had been anticipated, a string of recent developments has given rise to questions about the DPJ's governance capability, spreading fears that the country's national power might decline if the current circumstances persist. Hence, questions arise as to the causes of this...