Koizumi's economic reforms fail to deliver improvements

Whether or not Junichiro Koizumi looks back on his visit to North Korea as a global moment in his leadership, it's not clear whether Japan's prime minister has many more Japanese moments left in him. High-visibility foreign ventures may produce headlines, and in this case even tangible results. One looks forward to the latter with genuine anticipation. It remains a question, however, whether Koizumi can hang his heavy bag of domestic difficulties on a one-day trip to Pyongyang and expect such a hook to hold it for long. Koizumi's ratings in public-opinion polls have taken a considerable...