Twin disasters of a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and killer tsunami would tax even the strongest government. Add in the possibility of a total nuclear meltdown, and you've got the recipe for a leadership crisis that Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan is now facing. Kan's administration — widely seen as weak even before the quake — is facing broad criticism over everything from the speed and honesty of its updates on the nuclear situation to its evacuation plans. Is Japan's government falling down on the job?
Japan's leaders are flailing badly: "Never has postwar Japan needed strong, assertive leadership more," say Hiroko Tabuchi, Ken Belson, and Norimitsu Onishi in The New York Times, and never have the shortcomings of its "weak, rudderless" government been so apparent. Not that it's all Kan's fault. Japan's leaders aren't trained in skills like "rallying the public," or finding outside-the-box solutions on the fly, that a "bewildering" crisis like this calls for.
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