Mere fiddling

WHEN Junichiro Koizumi was elected prime minister in April, he vowed to push through structural reforms to help revive Japan's economy. To this end, he promised to clean up the banks and to sort out dud borrowers in industries such as construction and retailing. But the measures unveiled on June 26th tell a different story. Bank reform, even under Mr Koizumi, is making little progress. And the old guard has managed, under the guise of reform, to sneak through some pet schemes designed to coddle, rather than reform, the financial system.