Just as President Barack Obama is nearing the half-way mark of his first term in office, Japan’s Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, recently passed the half-way mark of his premiership, six months after succeeding ex-premier Yukio Hatoyama. Okay, that was kind of snarky. Unlike Obama, Kan doesn’t have a fixed term, save that of parliament itself which has about three more years left to run barring a snap general election. But none of his four predecessors as premier lasted more than a year in office and it looks increasingly like the old, depressing pattern will reassert itself – namely, falling public approval reflected in the polls, intraparty unease and strife, constant newspaper speculation and finally resignation. Will Kan be another Japanese premier who leaves office before anyone outside Japan learned his name?