Japan’s longest-serving Prime Minister, Shinzō Abe, has announced that he will step down, as soon as his replacement is selected. This is the second time that Abe has resigned the premiership (the first being in 2007) and ill health has again been cited as the reason. Abe has visited hospital several times in recent weeks and has looked tired on his rare public appearances as his chronic bowel disease has recurred.
The news has sparked two debates – the first, urgent one, is over Abe’s successor. The front-runner is probably Shigeru Ishiba, the 63-year-old former defence minister and Abe critic. The hawkish Ishiba is relatively liked by voters, but is less popular with his LDP colleagues; a serious obstacle. Former foreign affairs minister Fumio Kishida, also 63, is allegedly Abe’s preferred choice, despite not sharing his mentor’s dream of revising Article 9 of the pacifist constitution: renouncing war.
Other possibilities are Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga (71), also known as ‘Abe’s brain’, who could slither through on the inside.
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