Ichiro Ozawa's personal desire to finally become Japan's leader has distracted the nation's leaders from the vital debate that the nation needs to have to resurrect its economy, and the longer such a debate is put off, the more likely it is that another reckoning will come.

The Japanese military is emerging from decades of pacifism. But do the country's political leaders have the vision and the will to make the country strong again?

Political scandals surrounding the Democratic Party of Japan [DPJ], and its inability to deliver on campaign promises, could bring an abrupt end to the new era of hope and change the DPJ promised to bring about.

Japanese prime minister Naoto Kan has done the political equivalent of committing ritual suicide to atone for the sins of being a failure. Japan now has a dead prime minister walking, the fifth in as many years. Does any of this matter? It's getting harder for Japan specialists to assert that it does.

One of the great weights around the neck of Japanese politics in the past decade has been the refusal of older party leaders to make way for a younger cohort of politicians who might have better ideas for bringing Japan out of its economic slump. This inertia only became more prominent after the March 11 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis.

Whether Ichiro Ozawa's fundraising foibles will doom his party's chances to reshape Japan's political map remains to be seen.

If another generation experiences economic stagnation, Japan's otherwise stable democracy could be put to a test.

The next prime minister of Japan has a host of responsibilities to deal with and must hit the ground running because neither Japan nor the world can afford a fifth failed leader in a row.