Addendum to John Campbell's concise discussion of PM and Cabinet responsibility for "policies" in Japan: in Japan it is much more common for a Cabinet Minister [and occasionally a PM too] to take responsibility for a remark that is considered insensitive to either the opposition or to foreign countries. Thus many Japanese Cabinet ministers [indeed, at a consistently disgusting and appalling rate considering that this is 1995 and the rest of the world has a rather different view of the Pacific War] often have had to "take responsibility" and apologize and/or resign for offensive remarks made about WWII and Japan's invasion, conquest, and atrocities committed on other peoples during that war. This is far more common than, as John Campbell noted, any Minister or PM taking responsibility for a failed policy.

Best, Ellis Krauss