Shinzo Abe out

Japan's prime minister says he'll resign

I could've seen this one coming from miles away. It wasn't as if his reign was doomed from the beginning, but there were signals that his demise was coming. I was in Japan during May, and everyday, there was a torrent of criticism toward the guy, and his cabinet was haunted by multiple scandals. One of the cabinet members went on to commit suicide rather than face mounting allegations about his corrupt dealings.

Add that to the tumbling approval ratings (I think it might have even lower than Dubya's) and the fact that his ruling party got spanked in the last election, and it all seemed inevitable. I'll be sure to keep a close eye on how it all turns out...

 

Yea it seemed to be coming eh? But from what I read, it was a surprise to most political commentators...weird...

 

Sounded like he was a disaster from the start, particularly on the backdrop of Koizumi. So does this mean Japan will finally venture to vote somthing other than LDP for once or will they simply go with Abe's successor?

 

I doubt the successor will come from another party; in fact, his replacement may well be one of cabinet members.

Abe gave off an impression that resignation was not going to be an option for him, especially after he reshuffled his cabinet. But I think the pressure (if not a lot of stick) he got from the media and even some of his LDP allies became too much to handle.

To be fair to him though, he did well to mend relations with the Koreans and the Chinese to some degree. I still remember it being ugly, if not borderline hostile, with the Chinese when Koizumi was PM. We seem to be a long way from that now.

EDIT: He's apparently being treated for exhaustion as of this writing.

 

Just seen these polls a few minutes ago, and from the looks of it, the LDP supporters prefer Yasuo Fukuda as their choice to become the next PM. The other front-runner (Taro Aso) seems resigned to losing out on the job, so we can very well see this being settled within coming weeks.

I talked with my grandmother (a staunch believer of anything and everything right-wing) about Abe's exit the other day and she came down hard on the guy, even calling him an "idiot" and a "tool" at one point. I just thought it was a pretty damning indication of how bad the things turned for Japan under Abe.