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About meAbe Shinzo to step down
It’s now being reported on the BBC, among other sites: Japan’s embattled PM ‘to resign’ . . . Abe is giving a press conference in about 20 minutes, where he’ll present his reasons for stepping down, but so far the NHK people have mentioned things like his inability to gain opposition support for extending the antiterrorism measures law. Seems like an odd reason for him to give, since he recently stated he would be stepping down if that bill to renew the “Indian Ocean gas station law” didn’t make it through, but who knows? Something to watch on TV in a little bit, if you’re in Japan.
Problem for me: This comes on the afternoon of the day when we have our evening editorial board meeting, and the board members are likely to demand the chance to rewrite all their articles on Abe, the upper house election results, and so on. Even though we’re already finished with layout, and have no time to do massive edits before we go to the printers. C’mon guys, this magazine comes out once every two months, you shouldn’t expect to be timely.
Update:
Just watched the press conference. Abe: “We suffered a big defeat in the July election, but I felt that continuing along the path of reform/breaking free of the postwar regime was all-important. It’s also important for Japan to continue supporting the fight against terrorism. Today I asked for a face-to-face meeting with Ozawa to talk about that, but he wouldn’t meet with me, so I’m stepping down.”
The press questions included some asking why this timing was proper, when he hadn’t stepped down after the upper house drubbing. No very clear answer to be had there. His most honest answer came in response to perhaps the second question, when he reiterated the important tasks his administration is dedicated to seeing through and rather bluntly said “but none of this is going to get done while I’m around.”
Interesting times. I wonder if Uno Sosuke is happy to have some company in the “failed, short administration” club. I also wonder how Wakabayashi Masatoshi feels at having served as ag minister—twice!—for just a few weeks each time. Third, I wonder how the LDP goes about choosing its next president from here on out. Do the party bigwigs just get together and tap someone? Fukuda? Koizumi, again?
A few other posts on this are at Trans-Pacific Radio, Ampontan, Observing Japan, and Japan Probe. The last page names Aso Taro as the pol most likely to step into the PM’s office, but I’m not so sure about that one. We’ll see.
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