Yoshihiko Noda has accomplished more than Japan’s five previous prime ministers in his first year in office. He may still lose his job, after dividing his party, outraging anti-nuclear activists and raising taxes. Noda split the ruling Democratic Party of Japan with legislation doubling the sales tax to address record debt, a measure policy makers had struggled to pass for a decade. Responding to power shortages that threatened economic recovery, he reactivated two atomic reactors, risking a backlash from a public still traumatized from last year’s Fukushima disaster. Now, Noda must convince a weakened DPJ to keep ... (full story)