Fukuda came to power soon after the LDP's drubbing in the Upper House election of July 2007. It would have been difficult for anyone in the face of the so-called "twisted Diet", in which the two Houses are controlled by different camps.
In a desperate attempt to end the crippling legislative gridlock, Fukuda negotiated a grand LDP-Minshuto coalition with Minshuto President Ichiro Ozawa. When the deal fell through because of opposition from Minshuto members, Fukuda had run out of ideas on how to change the situation.
Then, Ozawa's Minshuto focused its political strategy on forcing Fukuda to dissolve the Lower House for a snap election. To achieve the goal, the opposition party opted for a confrontational approach on some key issues: legislation to allow the Self-Defense Forces to continue its refueling mission in the Indian Ocean as part of the US-led war against terror and an extension of the provisional gasoline tax rate beyond March expiration.
Fukuda managed to ride out the legislative crisis by using the ruling coalition's majority in the Lower House. On as many as three occasions, he resorted to a constitutional provision that allows the Lower House to override Upper House opposition to a bill by passing it a second time with a two-thirds majority.
But this process takes as long as 60 days after a bill is passed by the Lower House. The long-term political viability of this approach was clearly called into question by the steady decline of his approval ratings, which reflected a sense of frustration among the public about the snail's pace of politics.
Ironically, the ruling alliance's overwhelming majority in the Lower House, won in an election called by former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, undermined the flexibility in Fukuda's Diet strategy and discouraged him from dissolving the chamber for a snap poll to break the political deadlock.
Just one month ago, Fukuda reshuffled the Cabinet he virtually inherited from Abe, finally handpicking his team of ministers. He must have intended to bolster his political standing before the extraordinary Diet session this fall so that he could push through his political agenda.
Yet, Fukuda suddenly decided to abandon his job because of the gloomy outlook for bills to extend the SDF's refueling mission and create a new consumer affairs agency.
The failure of these initiatives could have destroyed the political foundation of his government, which has pledged to promote international cooperation for peace and restore a sense of security among the public as its key policy goals.
