
Prime Minister Abe Shinzo Intends to Step Down - benrbray
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200828_28/
======
benrbray
More information:

[1] Japan Times, "How Possible Successors Stack up if Abe Resigns"
([https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/08/24/national/politi...](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/08/24/national/politics-
diplomacy/shinzo-abe-successors/))

[2] Japan Times, "Abe to Resign due to Health Concerns, NHK Reports"
([https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/08/28/national/politi...](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/08/28/national/politics-
diplomacy/shinzo-abe-resign/))

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ahmedalsudani
I have my disagreements with Abe, but it’s hard not to admire someone who
walks in with bold ideas and tries for as long as he did to push society in a
different direction.

The morass would have done many in much sooner. Wishing Mr. Abe a swift
recovery.

~~~
xnyan
There's a pro Abe narrative in the west I do not understand.

It's a one party system, and as all one party systems it's incredibly corrupt.
Under his tenure poor people became poorer, his friends became richer, and
press freedoms got crushed into the earth. What on earth did he do or attempt
to do that was admirable?

~~~
conception
He’s done quite a bit of work on getting women into the workforce and into
leadership positions with not terrible results for such a difficult problem.

~~~
claudeganon
This narrative is touted in the western press, but has little basis in
reality. In real terms, women were only allowed into low wage, low rank, and
part time or contract work to juke labor force participation stats. Gender
parity is worse than it was 14 years ago:

>This year, the World Economic Forum ranked Japan 121st out of 153 countries
on gender parity, down 11 places from the year before and 41 places from 2006.
Its gender pay gap of 23.5 percent is the highest among G-7 countries and the
second highest in the OECD, behind only South Korea. And while the share of
women in the labor force has grown to more than 70 percent, higher than in the
United States or the European Union, most female workers in Japan have part-
time or contract jobs, which are more vulnerable during economic crises. Of
the 970,000 irregular jobs that were lost in April due to the coronavirus
pandemic, 710,000 were held by women.

[https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/trend-lines/28972/for-
ja...](https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/trend-lines/28972/for-japan-s-abe-
womenomics-is-not-enough-to-achieve-gender-equality)

~~~
conception
It's hard to say without more data. Are more women who have never been in the
workforce, or out of it for a very long time, now coming back in at lower
positions and thus bringing the stat down, but there's a net benefit as those
women are now there, climbing the ladder slowly but surely?

Or it can be as you say, and that they are getting glass ceiling.

We will see what the results are but -
[https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Business-trends/Japanese-
co...](https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Business-trends/Japanese-companies-
set-goal-of-30-female-executives-by-2030) is a goal at least, publicly stated.
The US hasn't had such a goal by any administration.

~~~
claudeganon
I’m not sure if you read the article I linked, but the 30% of executives is
not a new goal but a revision by ten years of a failed target set by Abe when
he first took office. It’s not a serious measure, but something used to
distract from the widening inequality and growing poverty measures in Japan.

Japanese households needing two wage earners to survive is increasingly
becoming a reality, but is a violation of what the LDP has promised would be
delivered through its conservativism. Abe’s pivot to “womenomics” was a little
more than a PR maneuver to distract from the worsening material conditions
that the LDP’s corrupt, failed leadership have wrought, while preserving the
underlying, extreme sexism of the country.

------
known
Rare politician;

If I can’t discharge my responsibility to the people of this country with
confidence, then I judge I should not continue as prime minister
[https://archive.vn/KaCoE](https://archive.vn/KaCoE)

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flocial
He is the longest serving Prime Minister in the history of Japan just shy of 8
years. Before COVID-19 he was under constant attack for a school funding
scandal, manipulating a cherry blossom party guest list hosted by the
government, and his mishandling of COVID-19. He never got to revise the
Japanese Constitution to reinstate a standing military force and all his
economic gains were cancelled by COVID-19. I don't know how history will judge
Abe but he did better than most.

~~~
claudeganon
I wish I understood the origin of all the pro-Abe PR narratives in the US. In
Japan, he’s immensely unpopular and emblematic of the country’s corrupt, one-
party democracy.

His supposed “revitalization” of the Japanese economy has done little more
than further impoverish average people, so he can hand out tax benefits to the
wealthy and his cronies. He’s dismantled press freedom in a way that other
politicians on the far right only dream of, having fired or demoted several
prominent journalists who voiced (by Western standards) mild criticism of him.

~~~
bonchicbongenre
The origin seems pretty obvious to me — Abe is part of the old guard, a
plutocrat and moral conservative, like his propagandist supporters in the US
media. Doesn't take any squinting to see their interests align

~~~
claudeganon
Yes, it was inaccurate for me to question the origin. I should've said its
surprising to me that otherwise educated people still fall for these
narratives.

~~~
Klonoar
Blind idolization of Japan runs deeper than you might expect, especially in
communities like the one we’re typing on.

When I lived there, I could never find anyone who liked him... but then again
as a society it’s not quite like the west where political engagement is high.

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square_usual
He seemed to have had this issue back in 2007, when he resigned from the Prime
Ministership for the first time. At soon-to-be 66 he's not older than Trump, I
wonder if he will make a third comeback.

If he doesn't, I wonder how future generations will look upon Abenomics.
Reuters is already claiming it failed to deliver [1], but it takes ages to
understand the full impact of economic changes.

1: [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-economy-
abenomics-a...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-economy-abenomics-
analysis-idUSKBN25O0TT)

~~~
oblio
Was it his decision to open Japan up? I've seen some graphs and they've had
more tourists in the past 10 years than they've had in many decades, combined,
before.

~~~
kijin
In previous decades, there weren't as many tourists from China.

Japan is rather far away from most of the rest of the developed world, so its
international tourism industry relies heavily on a handful of neighboring
countries. China, Korea, and Taiwan make up 2/3 of all foreign tourists who
visit Japan, and almost 3/4 if you count Hong Kong as well [1][2]. The
increase in the total number of tourists in the 2010s is more a reflection of
how well Japan's neighbors have been doing as it is of Japan's objective
attractiveness as a destination.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Japan#Statistics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Japan#Statistics)

[2] China's share was probably even larger in 2019, as diplomatic disputes
with South Korea resulted in a ~60% drop in the number of Korean tourists to
Japan in the second half of 2019. This year, of course, the pandemic screwed
up everything.

~~~
throwaway0a5e
>In previous decades, there weren't as many tourists from China.

This. Billion+ people country with a growing middle class that's almost within
day-trip distance is gonna result in a hell of a lot more tourists.

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jsnider3
He will be missed.

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benbojangles
Now who will open the Olympic Games?

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brian_herman__
isn’t his name Shinzo Abe?

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ulfw
Most languages of East Asia have a Surname First Name order (even with limits
to how many syllables the family name can have). So Mr. Shinzo’s first name is
Abe, written as Shinzo Abe. Same with Korean’s Kim, whose first names are Jong
Un or let’s say Vietnamese’s Ho Chi Min, whose surname was Ho. Sun Yat-sen
(last name Sun), Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen (surname Tsai), Singapore’s Lee Kuan
Yew (Lee family) etc etc. You get the idea.

~~~
magnio
Nitpick: the name is Ho Chi Minh, not Min.

~~~
Igelau
That's the kind of thing I just assume a mobile keyboard autocorrected. It's a
forum, not a publication. Armchair editors need not apply.

~~~
lolsal
Your assumption is fair, and feedback is generally welcomed, but this kind of
opinion is not helpful or solicited. Some people may not know the correct
spelling.

------
Aeolun
Not sure what to think of that. Of course it’s annoying to have your disease
recur, but it does feel like he’s just up and leaving when things aren’t
looking good.

~~~
flocial
You just can't falsify a medical diagnosis and would you rather have a Prime
Minister leading the country despite deteriorating health? Japan's COVID-19
situation is still way better than most countries. Whether it will hold is
anyone's guess but he's not fit enough to make big decisions and at some point
Japan might need another lock down.

I will say that I don't trust the LDP to rise above their internal bickering
and backroom politics to choose someone capable of handling this pandemic but
that is neither here nor there. We will find out soon.

There really isn't any stand out for LDP leadership post Abe and that's
something that deeply concerns me.

~~~
gridlockd
I think Japan shows that political leadership, of all factors, has minimal
impact on COVID-19 outcome. The Japanese government did almost nothing and got
away with it.

~~~
jiggawatts
They didn't have to, because much of their population already follows "COVID-
safe" practices. A large fraction wears facemasks in public and especially on
public transport. They bow instead of shaking hands. They don't kiss
acquaintances on the face, unlike say the custom in parts of the middle east.
They're very hygienic, even taking their shoes off when entering a home. Food
workers wear masks and gloves. So do taxi and bus drivers. Etc, etc...

A full lockdown on top of this would have unnecessarily harmed their economy
with little medical benefit.

~~~
greggman3
so many mis-conceptions.

Japanese don't all wear masks. They all had experience wearing them but it
wasn't common to see more than 5% of people wearing them at any one time until
Covid

Japan is not remotely hygienic. Most hospitals and doctor's offices would be
shut down by the health inspectors in the USA. I've seen all kinds of
disgustingly dirty beds, cabinets, shelves, tables, and equipment in my 14
years here. Most restaurants as well. It was only covid that finally got them
to cover food items at bakeries and buffets. It's easy to lose your appetite
when you see kids sneezing on all the food.

And for the last 2/2.5 months the country has seemed mostly not caring about
Covid. People are partying at bars, restaurants, and coffee shops and their
masks are off. Clubs are even open.

Something else must explain why Covid hasn't been bigger here but it is not
hygiene

~~~
Der_Einzige
Yeah, this post sounds fake and wrong and should be rejected. Japan is most
likely the most hygienic country on earth (okay, Singapore may beat them).
Sure you can find some backwater somewhere in Japan with worse hygiene than
the USA, but the overwhelming majority of that nation has levels of hygiene
which make even the cleanest parts of America look like a pig pen.

~~~
greggman3
Are you serious about Singapore being hygienic? Ever been to hawker stands in
Singapore? Ever visit Little India on a Sunday? Ever walk though the food
section of Mustafas? Especially the eggs isle? And yes I know they are
inspected.

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l_davis
Not surprising. Haven't seen much if anything of him in the media since he
announced Japan's complete victory over Covid 19 right before things started
reopening.

~~~
bamboozled
Just to clarify, that its' definitely not been a complete victory.

More like a nice display of "selective testing" so the numbers always look
acceptable.

~~~
SapporoChris
[https://toyokeizai.net/sp/visual/tko/covid19/en.html](https://toyokeizai.net/sp/visual/tko/covid19/en.html)
Publicly available test results show active cases slowly surge higher than the
point when they started shutting down. The numbers hardly look acceptable.

If Japan didn't have the pandemic under control, would there not be a surge of
deaths, particularly in the vulnerable age groups?
[https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/05/12/national/tokyo-...](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/05/12/national/tokyo-
overall-mortality-data-shows-no-surge-deaths-pandemic/)

~~~
gridlockd
The death rate has a lot to do with who gets infected, elderly in Japan tend
to be far healthier and in better care.

Another possibility is that those deaths are simply not counted. Japan did
notoriously little testing in the beginning. If a couple of 90 year olds die a
bit sooner, few would suspect foul play.

~~~
bamboozled
I don't believe this statement is accurate, there are a lot of elderly who
aren't in great shape in good care also.

I think what is accurate is that there is a lot of shame in Japanese society
and there are many accounts of even healthcare workers being ostracized and
bullied for catching it.

What I believe is more accurate is that it's swept under the rug in Japan more
than other countries.

If someone elderly in a family dies from Covid19, it's easier to not bother
requesting a test so you don't have to deal with the shame of having it in
your family if it comes back positive.

I'm not that against the lenient testing strategy, just don't think it's an
accurate depiction of what's going on in Japan.I do think it's having a
negative impact economically because people never truly feel safe as they
don't understand the risks well enough to enjoy themselves.

