Abe Elected New Japanese PM

The Japanese Diet elected a new Prime Minister with all the suspense of a Kabuki classic. Shinzo Abe was groomed by outgoing PM Koizumi, and his smoothly engineered succession to the leadership of the perennial ruling Liberal Democrats took all the surprise out of the vote. He won 339 votes out of 475 counted in the lower house and 136 ballots out of 240 in the upper chamber. Now, all he has to do is govern.

Although he is, at 52, the youngest post-war prime minister, he did have the advantage of growing up in a political household. His grandfather and great uncle were both post-war prime ministers. His dad missed out on the big chair only due to cancer right before it was his turn. While the idea of hereditary leadership is stupid, one cannot deny that the family environment is more likely to help rather than hurt.

Still, there are a few question marks hanging over him. For example, the only cabinet post he has held is Chief Cabinet Secretary, more or less the government’s chief spokesman. It gave him lots of time to get to know reporters, but it wasn’t much of a job for learning policy. Despite entering the Diet in 1993 (and serving as a political aide in the LDP 11 years before that), he is seen as a political newcomer.

As Napoleon would ask, “is he lucky?” Indeed, it seems Mr. Abe is lucky in following Mr. Koizumi’s extremely successful reign. Interest rates, which for ages were stuck at 0%, have gone up. GDP has started to grow. Corporations are turning a profit. And thanks to his job as Cabinet Secretary, he is reasonably well-known and rather well-liked by the man in the street. Sadly, it seems the only way he can go is down.

There are a few challenges he must face after he gets his cabinet in place (itself a major achievement in the arcane art of running Japan). He has to deal with relations with China and South Korea, countries that are nervous of a more assertive Japan. There is the matter of North Korea, a problem to which no one seems to have a solution. And there is economic reform and introducing even more market influences. Whether his feet fit Mr. Koizumi’s shoes, only time will tell.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

Home