Changing of the Guard
Prime Minister Abe has stepped down. Many people were concerned about his politics being hard-line conservative or right wing, but thinly veiled. Now we won’t have a chance to know for sure. However he has elevated Secretary Aso as interim head. I find him to be frighteningly right wing (no veil). Hopefully, the new PM will be decided soon to normalize things.
Russia, China, South Korea, and North Korea all have disputes with Japan, some of which are more than 60 years old. Anything that throws uncertainty into the mix can’t help get these things settled. Transition government equals uncertainty, to be certain.
Abe has been taking a beating throughout his short tenure. One of his cabinet members referred to women as “merely baby making machines”. This happened early on and really got the trouble started. No apologies came out, the offender just told the press, “I really want to get back to working hard on my job now.”
Several financial scandals came up as well; requiring a number of resignations. And in July’s upper house elections his party lost several seats. Often, loss of political power is followed by demands that the PM step down, but Abe refused at the time.
The very liberal English language editor for Asahi Shimbun spent half of yesterday’s special edition talking about the extension of Indian Ocean refueling operations; and how this impacted his administration. Personally, I haven’t heard anyone complain about war support activities in over a year. I would guess that problems with the public pension system (which earned only one sentence) have had the greater effect.
Abe was meant to take questions from delegates yesterday, but used his resignation announcement as a way to avoid questions. Today he was rushed to the hospital, so he couldn’t answer questions. I was informed that many public figures, facing heat they don’t want to, run to the hospital as an escape mechanism. He can probably use the hospital trip through tomorrow and then lay low over the three day weekend. Come Tuesday, they can shift the press toward the new PM selection.
One of the cabinet members, who was a finalist for the last PM selection (Fukuda, I think) is part of the ruling party, but definitely has standards to guide his decisions which don’t follow party line. Particularly when answering questions about military action, where other candidates waffled or hinted at aggressive tendencies, he stuck to constitutional privileges and a more centrist approach. He would probably make the best choice, but I won’t be surprised if Aso gets the nod.
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