61442    According to the opinion poll conducted last month by the Mainichi Newspapers, 44 percent of respondents "do not support any party," up 3 percent over the previous survey in September, thus indicating the further acceleration of voters' "estrangement from politics."

61443    In the summer of the year before last, the non-LDP coalition government headed by Prime Minister Hosokawa was established, ending 38 years of the "single-party rule" political system under the Liberal Democratic Party for the Japanese political community.

61444    Also last year, the LDP, the Social Democratic Party and Sakigake Party formed a coalition and the Murayama administration was inaugurated.

61445    While each event was a significant political shift and had an enormous impact on postwar politics, in looking back at the past year and a half, it appears that the people's frustration and disappointment have been amplified since even though these major changes in politics occurred, they stopped short of turning into a large-scale political reform to reach and destroy the innermost core of the existing political structure.

61446    According to the poll conducted in August of the year before last, immediately after the Hosokawa administration was established, the approval rating for supporting the Cabinet was a record-breaking 75 percent, 9 percent for "do not support" and 14 percent for "not interested."

61447    At present, the ratings for the Murayama administration are 29 percent for "support,"25 percent for "do not support" and 42 percent for "not interested."

61448    The people's rising expectations placed on the "reform" that the Hosokawa Cabinet had put up were totally and completely blown away later during the transition from the Hata administration to the Murayama administration subsequent to Prime Minister Hosokawa's resignation over a political scandal.

61449    Having been forced to realize that "reform," the term that every prime minister has used conveniently like a buzzword, was, in fact, a political mumbo jumbo with no substance, the public has been increasingly withdrawn into a political shell of indifference.

61450    To put it after a movie's title, despite a "clear and present danger" hovering over politics, neither the political parties nor politicians are making efforts to bury the gap between expectation and disappointment.

61451    While we appreciate that the opposition now has a larger framework with the formation of the New Frontier Party, the differences in political beliefs or agenda among the various parties that joined to form the new party were tucked away without being resolved and the number crunching to simply ensure their survival by addressing the single-seat constituency was made a priority.

61452    With the deepening intra-party conflict over the establishment of the third power and the mass defection by a group of neutral and right-wing members, the Social Democratic Party, the cornerstone supporting the Murayama administration, is in turmoil.

61453    In the meantime, the Liberal Democratic Party, the other ruling party, has cooled down from its temporary excitement over the rebirth of the party, possibly due to the sense of security brought by the party's return to power, glossed over the party reform with perfunctory revisions, and is making a frantic effort to stay in power.

61454    A law was passed to draw the boundaries the single-seal Lower House districts; the new electoral system based on the combination of single-seat constituencies and proportional representation has been enforced and we can expect the dissolution of the Diet and a general election any day.

61455    Aware of the election, the Murayama administration prepared the lavish popularity-seeking 1995 budget, contrary to its call for an efficient "small government," and postponed the policy to work its fingers to the bones for the citizens.

61456    In response to the implementation of the single-seated constituency, both the parties and politicians are too preoccupied with their own s survival and saving their own status to pay attention to the "reform" which Japanese politics should embrace.