JAPAN:Six weeks after leading his party to its worst-ever electoral defeat, and amid plunging ratings and growing political chaos, Shinzo Abe has announced his resignation as Japan's prime minister, saying the country needs a "new leader to fight terrorism".
The resignation, despite a vow by Mr Abe earlier this week to remain in office until a controversial anti-terror Bill is passed, surprised political watchers and leaves the conservative ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) floundering for a successor.
"In order to continue the war on terror I thought carefully about what needs to be done," a tired looking Mr Abe told TV viewers yesterday afternoon. "I have decided that it is time to take a new approach . . . and perhaps this is something that needs to be done under a new prime minister." LDP cabinet members said that Mr Abe's failing health and the stress of dealing with a constant stream of political blunders had contributed to his decision. Several TV commentators pointed out last night that at times Mr Abe seemed to be close to tears during his speech.
Since taking office almost a year ago, Mr Abe has presided over one of the more corrupt Japanese governments in living memory, losing four cabinet ministers to scandal before a punishing loss at the polls in July.
A government reshuffle at the end of last month failed to stop the rot: cabinet member Takehiko Endo resigned this month after acknowledging financial impropriety, the third farm minister to quit on Mr Abe's watch. Several other ministers were under investigation, adding to the clamour for Mr Abe to step down.
With a bruising battle looming this week over unpopular plans to extend Japan's support for US warships in the Indian Ocean, the 52-year-old prime minister called it quits. The opposition Democratic Party (DPJ), which took control of the lower house for the first time in July, had vowed to fight the extension tooth and nail.
Opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa yesterday said he was puzzled as to why Mr Abe had stepped down now, but said either way his party's campaign against the proposed anti-terror law would continue. "There is no way that our thinking will change because of a change in the Liberal Democratic Party." The LDP now faces one of the most serious crises in its half-century history. The party has few obvious candidates for leader, which it badly needs to revive its fortunes and fight a resurgent DPJ.
Hawkish secretary general Taro Aso is the most likely contender, but a history of provocative right-wing statements, and a family background steeped in some of the darker episodes of the second World War, have won him few friends in China or the rest of Asia.
Mr Aso yesterday promised a quick LDP presidential election "to avoid creating a political vacuum", but would not be drawn on whether he has thrown his hat into the ring.
Japan's youngest post-war prime minister, Mr Abe took office last September from Junichiro Koizumi, brandishing the political slogan "beautiful Japan" and promising to radically reform the constitution and instill patriotism into the education system.
But voters struggling with bread-and-butter issues such as jobs and a growing income gap showed little obvious enthusiasm for his reforms. Mr Abe's support fell steadily after a string of cabinet resignations exposed him as a poor judge of political talent.
Revelations that government bureaucrats had lost millions of pensions records - a problem the prime minister initially ignored - further battered his popularity and turned out to be the defining event of his prime ministerial career.
Mr Abe found it increasingly hard to shake the public perception of a man badly out of touch with popular concerns and obsessed with a narrow nationalist agenda, inherited from his ex-prime minister grandfather.
By the time Japan went to the polls in lower house elections in July, he was nursing approval ratings below 30 per cent. Voters rewarded the LDP, which has been in power for almost half a century of unbroken rule, with a historic defeat, and handed the house for the first time to the DPJ.
Mr Abe clung to power, but he admitted last night that the defeat had destroyed his reform agenda. "Given the current circumstances it is very difficult to win the support and confidence of the general public, so it has been difficult for me to move forward with my reforms powerfully," he said.
"Therefore, I think it is time I took the appropriate measures to make a breakthrough, and that is the decision I have made." The DPJ will now try to press home its advantage by forcing the LDP to call a general election. Mr Aso, who plans an LDP presidential election on September 19th to select Mr Abe's successor, ruled out any such move last night. "We have no intention of calling a general election," he said.