TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Unpopular Prime Minister Stuns Japan By Resigning

ADVERTISEMENT

By NORIMITSU ONISHI, The New York Times

Published: September 13, 2007

TOKYO - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's abrupt announcement on Wednesday afternoon that he would resign upset what was to have been an orderly end to the nationalist leader's scandal- and gaffe-prone government. The resignation threw Japan's tense political situation into further disarray.

The unpopular Abe had been written off by Japan's political establishment and news media, his political future measured in months. The start of a new parliamentary session on Monday had been expected to initiate fierce debate between the governing party and the newly powerful opposition Democratic Party, followed by probable deadlock over the Japanese military's role in Afghanistan and then by Abe's exit.

But his resignation's timing - minutes before opposition leaders were scheduled to question him for the first time since the start of the parliamentary session on Monday - stunned Japan. Abe's governing Liberal Democratic Party on Sept. 19 will choose a new party leader who, given the LDP's control of the lower house of Parliament, will automatically become prime minister.

Abe - who had described himself as a 'politician who fights' - apparently had no stomach for it. As early as Monday, he had shared his wish to quit with his closest political confidant - Taro Aso, the party's secretary-general, who shares Abe's views and is now widely considered the front-runner to succeed him.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT