Reform in tangles

YASUHISA SHIOZAKI starts tapping his finger on the dismal economic chart on his coffee table. “Unless we change the decision-making process,” he says bluntly, “we are not going to be able to solve this kind of problem.” With the economy in such a mess, it may seem a bit of a diversion to be trying to sort out Japan's political structures as well as its economic problems. But Mr Shiozaki, a 51-year-old MP from Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), can hardly be accused of time-wasting. He has consistently prodded the government to take a firm hand to ailing banks, and has given warning against complacency after a recent rise in share prices. Far from being a distraction, his latest cause highlights how far Japan is from genuine economic reform.