There are several arguments for why Ozawa is particularly worrisome as secretary-general. The first concerns Ozawa’s behavior in past coalition governments, the 1993-1994 Hosokawa government and his Liberal Party’s coalition with the LDP in 1999. With Ozawa’s having manipulated past governments, why shouldn’t he act the same this time around? Of course, it is possible that Ozawa is unchanged from 1993, that he has not reflected at all on how the Hosokawa government fell apart — but reports suggest he is regretful about how he drove the Socialist Party into the arms of the LDP in 1994. Beyond the record of Ozawa’s past behavior, there isn’t much to this argument. It is simply impossible to know the workings of Ozawa’s mind. It is possible that he has learned, it is possible that he will be able to control himself and focus on winning the 2010 upper house election for the DPJ as Hatoyama hopes he will, that he will respect that he is not in the cabinet and that his job will be to convey the cabinet’s wishes to backbenchers and make them follow its lead. Controlling 308 Diet members, after all, will take someone with Ozawa’s influence in the party.

This aspect of the job leads into the second fear regarding Ozawa as secretary-general, that because of the so-called “Ozawa children” Ozawa will be able to use the power of numbers to pressure the cabinet to do his bidding. The idea of the Ozawa children — of whom there are said to be 120 — is that because Ozawa had a direct hand in their being elected (and some had some relationship with Ozawa prior to running for office), he has gained their loyalty and will be able to use them to his advantage. But talk of this group constituting a faction is, at the very least, premature. The Ozawa group — the Isshin kai — has been more of a study group for young party members than a faction in the sense of the LDP’s factions. What evidence is there that the influx of members who have benefited from Ozawa’s tutelage will result in the Ozawa group coalescing into a dominant faction, other than the speculation of the media, that is? Once again, it is a question of Ozawa’s being able to control himself, using his power to support the government instead of using it to undermine the cabinet.

And incidentally, the joint Asahi-University of Tokyo survey of newly elected Diet members asked the DPJ’s first-termers which party leader they view as their “parent.” Both Hatoyama and Okada edged out Ozawa, with Okada being a fraction more popular than Hatoyama. The point is that the relationship between the party’s newly elected backbenchers and the party leadership is far more nuanced than fevered reporting about the “Ozawa faction” would suggest.

Hatoyama, of course, insisted Thursday that there would not be a dual power structure with Ozawa as secretary-general. He also stressed that the biggest reason for naming Ozawa secretary-general is to have him prepare the DPJ for its next electoral test, the 2010 upper house election.

But for now it is impossible to know precisely how Ozawa will act as the party’s chief official outside of the cabinet. If past behavior is in fact the best predictor of future behavior, then Ozawa’s appointment could be disastrous. But if Ozawa has in fact learned from past mistakes and if he is able to control himself — and if Ozawa acts differently as secretary-general as leader of a party with a huge majority in the lower house than as the leader of a small party in coalition with others — then it is possible that he could be an asset for Hatoyama, keeping the party’s backbenchers in line and delivering the government’s message to voters around in the country in advance of next year’s election.