62020    It was a huge piece of work with the length being twice as much as that of the two previous speeches, and it took 45 minutes just to deliver.

62021    However, quantity does not reflect quality.

62022    To our regret, the contents were quite uninspiring.

62023    Although Prime Minister's speeches are customarily prepared by incorporating his intent into the drafts submitted by the various ministries and agencies, we got the impression that even the editing of drafts was not sufficiently done and they were patched together with conjunctions without much thought.

62024    In the era of coalition governments, the existence of bureaucrats taking advantage of political confusion becomes conspicuous and rampant, and it seems that the Prime Minister's speech inadvertently exposed that.

62025    While the speech touched upon the immediate political challenges without missing any, the critical order of priorities was undefined and the unusual length of the speech appears to prove such behaviors of bureaucrats.

62026    The Social Democratic Party is in disarray in connection with forming a new party, and the foundation of the government is shaken in a major way.

62027    The Prime Minister probably didn't have any room to spare for the speech.

62028    On July 18 of last year, the Prime Minister delivered his first speech after taking office and preached about the principle of "gentle politics," followed by his second speech on September 30 of the same year which was his attempt to substantiate it with specifics.

62029    While his enthusiasm came across in the two earlier speeches, we could not detect any of that elan in the Prime Minister's latest speech.

62030    In particular, comparing to the last speech that was delivered at the time when the Murayama administration was on the right track, a subtle difference in phrasing and reserved expressions was noticeable.

62031    A very good example is the political reform.

62032    Where Mr. Murayama had been eloquent in his last speech remarking that "efforts to dispel the public distrust in politics caused by corruption, collusive structure of the government, bureaucrats and industry and other related problems and to establish sound party politics that will truly speak for the benefit of the people are needed now more than ever," in this speech he was curt, and said that his government would "realize the party-oriented politics making the most of the intent of the new electoral system and to ensure the total ban of corruption."

62033    In the fiftieth year after the end of the war, the message that Japan is transmitting to the world seems to have become weaker.

62034    Some parts of his latest speech are better modulated.