“Lost in the frothy trivialities of the debate over Prime Minister Koizumi's Yasukuni Shrine visits,” writes Japundit blogger Ampontan, “is an impressive record of accomplishments during his term in office that should have left the world's media hailing him has Japan's greatest postwar political reformer.”

These accomplishments as listed by the blogger include the destruction of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's faction system, the dismantling of the so-called Iron Triangle—the term used to describe the politically and financially incestuous relationship between politicians, the bureaucracy, and business and industry, and greater participation of people (particularly women) with non-political backgrounds in the political process.