With Mr Kato in the political wilderness, the best reformist hope is Junichiro Koizumi, a former minister of health and welfare.

ECONOMIST: Mori-bund | The

Even one of Mr Abe's fiercest critics, Yoichi Masuzoe, who called for his resignation after the upper-house defeat, has been made minister of health and welfare admittedly an unenviable job, since he must clean up the mess of the missing pensions records.

ECONOMIST: Cabinet shuffle in Japan

Pressed by opposition lawmakers in parliament, Yoko Komiyama, minister of welfare, health and labor, has said she would consider reducing welfare payments.

WSJ: Japan Welfare Case Stirs Debate on Who Should Care for Needy

While he was health minister last year, the populist Naoto Kan announced that the Health and Welfare Ministry was in the process of lifting the ban on oral contraceptives.

ECONOMIST: Japan

One can see this reflected in the enormous popularity that Health and Welfare Minister Kan Naoto earned from simply telling the truth about a bureaucratic cover-up of an AIDS scandal (he may have lost some luster following the ministry's fumbling of a food poisoning episode).

CNN: The Communists come back