Japan's prime minister quits after series of scandals

(Robert Gilhooly/EPA)

Shinzo Abe today: he failed to give precise reasons for stepping down

(ISSEI KATO)

Mr Abe lost four ministers of agriculture in 14 weeks

Shinzo Abe, Japan’s embattled Prime Minister, resigned today, admitting that he had completely lost the public’s trust amid a rash of scandals.

Ashen faced and his eyes welling with tears, Japan’s youngest post-war leader ended a turmoil-filled premiership that has lasted less than a year and delivered very little of the reform it promised.

“It’s now or never,” he said. “If I postpone my resignation it will cause confusion, so I felt I had to do it as soon as possible. My presence is a ‘minus point’ and without me we can create a better [political] environment.”

His resignation sets up a succession battle which he said he hoped would be resolved quickly. Political analysts are tipping the current Secretary-General of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Taro Aso, as his likely successor.

Selected by the LDP as a supposedly youthful and vigorous new leader last Autumn, Mr Abe has faltered from the outset. His early success in repairing damaged Japanese relations with China and South Korea was quickly overtaken by disappointment in his commitment to reform.

Known principally for his vague pledge to turn Japan into a “beautiful country”, he has watched helplessly as his approval ratings have dwindled to historic lows and his party been battered in critical elections.

One of the chief criticisms of Mr Abe has been his apparent lack of control over his Cabinet – a group widely viewed as his personal cronies rather than the best men and women for the job. His former foreign minister made a gaffe about people with Altzheimer’s, and his former health minister dismissed women as “breeding machines.”

In the course of his single year in power, Mr Abe has accepted the resignations of three cabinet ministers and the suicide of another. His defence minister resigned after an apparent gaffe about the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, the others were involved in money scandals.

Rumours of money-related scandals are swirling around more than a dozen other ruling party politicians. Overshadowing all of this has been the scandal involving the national pension system, in which more than 50 million individual pension records disappeared because of bureaucratic incompetence dating back many years.

Chosen by his charismatic predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, as a torch-bearer of the reformist drive he had started, Mr Abe has struggled to keep that momentum going. In July his party suffered its worst ever defeat in an Upper House election. Mr Abe’s determination not to resign in the aftermath of that defeat deepened public criticism and drew attacks from within his own party.

Although Mr Abe declared that his resignation was a “now or never” moment, he failed to give precise reasons for stepping down. The scene became increasingly bizarre as Mr Abe tried to explain the timing of his decision.

His speech, mumbled and punctuated with long pauses, alluded to what was until today Mr Abe’s biggest current challenge: passing an anti-terrorism Bill upon which Japan-US relations depend heavily.

“I made every effort to promote my reform agenda, but if I stay on as Prime Minister, we face a very difficult situation in dealing with the opposition party, and so we have to create new energy, and with it a new leadership,” he said.

Earlier this week, Mr Abe staked his premiership on the passing of the Bill in the current parliament, threatening to resign if he failed to push it through. But since the heavy loss at July’s Upper House polls, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has been on the back foot and the opposition Democratic Party of Japan has been brimming with confidence.

The main threat to Mr Abe’s feeble grip on power since that election has been Ichiro Ozawa, the DPJ leader and a veteran political bruiser of some 40 years experience who is determined that the anti-terror Bill – which would allow Japanese ships to refuel US military vessels in the Indian Ocean - should not pass.

In advance of the debate on the Bill, said Mr Abe, he had requested a meeting with Mr Ozawa, but was rejected. But following Mr Abe’s resignation speech, Mr Ozawa said that he never received an official request for a meeting to discuss the legislation.