Do you think Yoshihiko Noda is doing a good job as prime minister of Japan?

I don't Noda.

The task of prime minster is never an easy one.

There should be another option to answer instead of "yes, no or I don't know." Such as, "It doesn't matter." He will be gone in a year's time whether he does a good job or not.

"the task of prime minister is never an easy one."

No one said it is easy. But if you are going to lead a nation, you had better be good at it. And you should expect the people to be unhappy if you are not.

I think he is doing a good job of not putting his foot in his mouth, relatively speaking, which is a must if you are to keep that job in this country.

I mean it seems like he knows probably what to say and what not to say. But that doesn't mean he is necessarily doing a good job. It's hard to tell.

Noda came for a visit to Okinawa recently, not to open communication with the people who actually live here, not to find out what their problems are. He didn't need to. That obviously wasn't on the agenda!

He came here to persuade the Okinawans to accept US bases.

He ignores his own people and is basically an American puppet.

No, I don't think he is doing a good job at all.

The best thing he has going for him is that he didn't inherit the post from his father or grandfather. (Like Hatoyama, Aso, Fukuda, Abe, Koizumi, etc.)

He's doing a good job of something: enriching the baby boomers at the expense of all the workers under 40-50, who will see ever-higher taxes so that a generation already richer and more secure than they are can be even more well-off.

How any working-age person can support this generational theft is beyond my understanding.

I'd like to see a politician with the guts to tell the "dankai" generation that their benefits are going to be cut because they just didn't produce enough new workers to keep extracting pension money from.

Is there even a difference between Noda and the previous 4-5 prime ministers? None of those dinosaurs is fit to govern Japan any longer, they just need to get out and let the less conservative young people take over. Only then they might actually get something done.

He's an industry lackey, does whatever is good for business and not people

This is more difficult than it seems. Given he inherited a role where there is no majority for his party, the coalition is in tatters, and even his own party is now splitting up with multiple resignations I think he did as good a job as anyone could. He doesn't actually have any power to execute, which is stiffling everything. Even if there are fresh elections there still won't be an outright goverment majority because there is no real division of core policy between the parties. They are all centre conservative, so it just a case of who do you dislike the most, and don't vote for them! Eternal paralysis!

I believe that it would be more beneficial if Mr. Noda focused on the government's wasteful spending.

Just as Japan's economy is recovering, I believe it is an error for Mr. Noda to double the country's consumption tax. Yes, he argues that the reason of the increase is to avoid a Greek outcome. What he may unknowingly accomplish is push Japan closer to Europe's fate. Europe has pissed away money for so long that the only thing it can do is buy time with ever longer dated bonds.

Despite the seemingly current calm in Europe, I expect Greece to default within six months.

If taxes increase while wages stagnate, as is currently the case, Japanese living standards will erode as marginal consumption will decrease. If that happens, then the forecasted revenue may not be realized to the expectation of the government.

I voted yes because he has been able to hold his position for nearly as long as the previous 16 prime ministers in the last 15 years.

Gyouza's post is good. I think Noda is doing a good job of balancing out all the factions and in-fighting, but paralysis rules at the end of the day because of politicians' internal loyalties to their own factions rather than putting the country first. They're all focused on the small picture.

noda did a bad job.

Noda was a bad prime minister who lied a lot.