Japan PM Shinzo Abe says he’s resigning for health reasons

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said Friday he is stepping down because a chronic health problem has resurfaced. He told reporters that it was “gut wrenching” to leave many of his goals unfinished.

Abe has had ulcerative colitis since he was a teenager and has said the condition was controlled with treatment. Concerns about his health began this summer and grew this month when he visited a Tokyo hospital two weeks in a row for unspecified health checkups. He is now on a new treatment that requires IV injections, he said. While there is some improvement, there is no guarantee that it will cure his condition and so he decided to step down after treatment Monday, he said.

“It is gut wrenching to have to leave my job before accomplishing my goals,” Abe said Friday, mentioning his failure to resolve the issue of Japanese abducted years ago by North Korea, a territorial dispute with Russia and a revision of Japan’s war-renouncing constitution.

He said his health problem was under control until earlier this year but was found to have worsened in June when he had an annual checkup.

“Faced with the illness and treatment, as well as the pain of lacking physical strength ... I decided I should not stay on as prime minister when I’m no longer capable of living up to the people’s expectations with confidence,” Abe said at a news conference.

In a country once known for its short-tenured prime ministers, the departure marks the end of an unusual era of stability that saw the Japanese leader strike up strong ties with U.S. President Donald Trump even as Abe’s ultra-nationalism riled the Koreas and China. While he pulled Japan out of recession, the economy has been battered anew by the coronavirus pandemic, and Abe has failed to achieve his cherished goal of formally rewriting the U.S.-drafted pacifist constitution because of poor public support.

Abe said he achieved a stronger Japan-U.S. security alliance and the first visit by a serving U.S. president to the atom-bombed city of Hiroshima. He also helped Tokyo gain the right to host the 2020 Olympics by pledging that a disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant was “under control” when it was not.

Recently, “The coronavirus’s impact on the economy was a blow to Abe, who was stuck at home and lacking an opportunity to make any achievement or show off his friendship with Trump, and was pushed into a corner,” said Koichi Nakano, an international politics professor at Sophia University in Tokyo.

Abe continued to bolster Japan’s defense capability to respond to America’s needs, Nakano said. “For those who believe the Japan-U.S. alliance is paramount, that was his major achievement,” he said. But Abe bulldozed his expanded defense policy and other contentious issues through parliament, repeatedly neglecting public opinion, Nakano said.

Abe is a political blue blood who was groomed to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi. His political rhetoric often focused on making Japan a “normal” and “beautiful” nation with a stronger military and bigger role in international affairs.

Abe, whose term ends in September 2021, is expected to stay on until a new party leader is elected and formally approved by the parliament, a process which is expected to take several weeks.

Abe became Japan’s youngest prime minister in 2006, at age 52, but his overly nationalistic first stint abruptly ended a year later because of his health.

In December 2012, Abe returned to power, prioritizing economic measures over his nationalist agenda. He won six national elections and built a rock-solid grip on power, bolstering Japan’s defense role and capability and its security alliance with the U.S. He also stepped up patriotic education at schools and raised Japan’s international profile.

Abe on Monday became Japan’s longest-serving prime minister by consecutive days in office, eclipsing the record of Eisaku Sato, his great-uncle, who served 2,798 days from 1964 to 1972.

But his second hospital visit Monday accelerated speculation and political maneuvering toward a post-Abe regime.

Ulcerative colitis causes inflammation and sometimes polyps in the bowels. People with the condition can have a normal life expectancy but serious cases can involve life-threatening complications.

After his recent hospital visits were reported, top officials from Abe’s Cabinet and the ruling party said he was overworked and badly needed rest.

His health concerns came as his support ratings plunged due to his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and its severe impact on the economy, on top of a stream of political scandals, including his own.

There are a slew of politicians eager to replace Abe.

Shigeru Ishiba, a 63-year-old hawkish former defense minister and Abe’s archrival, is a favorite next leader in media surveys, though he is less popular within the governing party. A low-key former foreign minister, Fumio Kishida, Defense Minister Taro Kono, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, and economic revitalization minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who is in charge of coronavirus measures, are widely mentioned in Japanese media as potential successors.

Abe was often upstaged in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic by Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike, a former governing party conservative who is seen as a potential prime minister candidate by some. But she would have to first be elected to parliament to be in the running for the top job.

Analysts say no major change of policy is expected whoever succeeds Abe, though Japan may return to an era of short-lived leadership.

The end of Abe’s scandal-laden first stint as prime minister was the beginning of six years of annual leadership change, remembered as an era of “revolving door” politics that lacked stability and long-term policies.

When he returned to office in 2012, Abe vowed to revitalize the nation and get its economy out of its deflationary doldrums with his “Abenomics” formula, which combines fiscal stimulus, monetary easing and structural reforms.

Perhaps Abe’s biggest regret was his inability to fulfill a long-cherished goal of his grandfather and himself to formally rewrite the pacifist constitution. Abe and his ultra-conservative supporters see the U.S.-drafted constitution as a humiliating legacy of Japan’s World War II defeat.

He was also unable to achieve his goal of settling several unfinished wartime legacies, including normalizing ties with North Korea, settling island disputes with neighbors and signing a peace treaty with Russia formally ending their hostilities in World War II.

Abe said he will focus on his treatment for now and “continue his political activity and support a new administration as a lawmaker.”

Associated Press

Japan inflation edges up but way below target in August

TOKYO — Prices in Japan edged up modestly in August, according to government data on Friday, as the world's third-largest economy continues its years-long battle with deflation.

Inflation stood at 0.9 percent year-on-year in August, still far below the Bank of Japan's two-percent target, even though slightly higher than 0.8 percent in July and June and 0.7 percent in May.

The latest figure was in line with market consensus.

With fresh food and energy stripped out, prices rose by even less -- just 0.4 percent year-on-year in August, the internal affairs ministry said.

Japan has battled deflation for many years and the central bank's ultra-loose monetary policy appears to be having limited impact.

The Bank of Japan will not raise interest rates "for an extended period of time", its chief said after the latest rate-setting meeting, even as US and European peers tighten monetary policy.

Deflation is bad for the economy partly because the expectation of falling prices discourages spending and dampens growth.

The latest data come a day after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won comfortable re-election as leader of his ruling party, setting him on course to become Japan's longest-serving premier.

During the election campaign for the vote, Abe said he wanted the economy to strengthen enough to allow the central bank to wind up the current super-loose monetary policy "by the end of" his new three-year term.

Analysts say Abe's re-election means that the government will take active fiscal measures to boost the still-fragile economy along with the central bank.

source: philstar.com

Toll from Japan quake rises to 18 as hopes fade for survivors

TOKYO, Japan — Japanese rescue workers with bulldozers and sniffer dogs scrabbled through the mud Friday to find survivors from a landslide that buried houses after a powerful quake, as the death toll rose to 18.

Around 22 people are still unaccounted for in the small northern countryside town of Atsuma, where a cluster of dwellings were wrecked when a hillside collapsed with the force of the 6.6-magnitude quake, causing deep brown scars in the landscape.


"We've heard there are people still stuck under the mud, so we've been working around the clock but it's been difficult to rescue them," a Self-Defense Forces serviceman in Atsuma told public broadcaster NHK.

"We will take measures to find them quickly."

An elderly woman in Atsuma told NHK: "My relative is still buried under the mud and has not been found yet, so I couldn't sleep at all last night. There were also several aftershocks so it was a restless night."

Around 1.6 million households in the sparsely populated northern island of Hokkaido were still without power after the quake damaged a thermal plant supplying electricity to the region.

Industry minister Hiroshige Seko said that number should be reduced to 550,000 households on Friday.

"It will take about a week" before the largest thermal power plant recovers, "so during that period, we are sending power-generating vehicles to hospitals," Seko told reporters.

He urged citizens to conserve energy by having fewer lights on in shops and restaurants and "for example family members staying together in one room".

Some 22,000 rescue workers including troops called up from the Self-Defense Forces handed out emergency water supplies and long lines formed at petrol stations and supermarkets, as people stocked up fearing further quakes.

"Please give your sympathy to people who spent a dark night in fear, and do everything you can to restore electricity as soon as possible," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a cabinet meeting to discuss the quake.

The earthquake, which scored the maximum on a Japanese scale measuring the power of a quake's shaking, also collapsed a handful of houses and walls in the main city of Sapporo.

However, considering the strength of the quake, the death toll was relatively light, with the majority of victims coming from the landslide in Atsuma.

- 'Pay attention' -

Transport services were gradually coming back on line with bullet trains resuming operations late Friday morning and the main airport in Sapporo operating a partial service after cancelling all flights the day before.

But a football friendly between Japan and Chile in Sapporo planned on Friday was scrapped due to the transport and power chaos in Hokkaido.

The quake was the latest in a string of natural disasters to batter the country.

Western parts of the country are still recovering from the most powerful typhoon to strike Japan in a quarter of a century, which claimed 11 lives and shut down the main regional airport.

And officials warned of the danger of fresh quakes.

"Large quakes often occur, especially within two to three days (of a big one)," said Toshiyuki Matsumori, in charge of monitoring earthquakes and tsunamis at the meteorological agency.

The risk of housing collapses and landslides had increased, he said, urging residents "to pay full attention to seismic activity and rainfall and not to go into dangerous areas".

Japan sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where many of the world's earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are recorded.

In June, a deadly tremor rocked the Osaka region, killing five people and injuring over 350.

On March 11, 2011, a devastating 9.0-magnitude quake struck under the Pacific Ocean, and the resulting tsunami caused widespread damage and claimed thousands of lives.

source: philstar.com

Japan PM: Trans-Pacific Partnership 'meaningless' without US

Buenos Aires, Argentina - A Pacific-wide trade deal would be "meaningless" without the United States, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday, as Donald Trump vowed to abandon the agreement on his first day in office.

The future of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has been thrown into serious doubt after the US president-elect repeated a pledge to make withdrawing from the pact a top priority.

The Republican billionaire, who made the comments in a short video message, has previously said the TPP would be bad for the country and cost jobs.

Abe, who attended an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Peru at the weekend, said there had been no discussion there among other TPP members about pressing on with a deal that did not include the US.

"TPP without the United States would be meaningless," Abe said, responding to questions from reporters during a stop in Buenos Aires.

"It is impossible to renegotiate it, and it would destabilize the basic balance of interests."

The US and Japan are the biggest members of the massive trade deal, which would encompass some 40 percent of the global economy if it goes into force. It also includes Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

The deal, which has been years in the making, cannot be implemented in its current form without the US.

The 70-year-old Trump outlined a list of priorities for his first 100 days and executive actions to be taken "on day one" -- on half a dozen issues from trade to immigration, national security and ethics.

"On trade, I am going to issue our notification of intent to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a potential disaster for our country," said the property tycoon, who takes office January 20.

"Instead, we will negotiate fair, bilateral trade deals that bring jobs and industry back onto American shores," he added.

Both the TPP and the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement linking the US, Mexico and Canada featured heavily in the brutal White House race.

Trump's remarks came just days after Abe met him in New York, the first world leader to sit down with the president-elect.

"The fact that Trump has made it is his first priority (out of six) to withdraw from TPP demonstrates his strong determination to kill (it)," said Matthias Helble, a research economist at the Asian Development Bank Institute in Tokyo.

"Abe's charm offensive to be the first foreign head of state to visit Trump has failed."

Trump appeared focused on bilateral agreements that would let the US use its size to "basically dictate trade deals with smaller developing countries", Helble added.

source: interaksyon.com

Strong 6.4-magnitude quake hits southwestern Japan

TOKYO - A strong 6.4-magnitude earthquake hit Japan's southwestern island of Kyushu on Thursday, but there was no danger of a tsunami, local authorities said.

The quake, which the US Geological Survey measured at 6.0, struck at 9:26 p.m. (1226 GMT) in Kumamoto, central Kyushu at a relatively shallow depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

The quake was followed about 30 minutes later by another smaller one with a magnitude of 5.7, the agency said. That quake also did not generate a tsunami warning.

Japan's public broadcaster NHK reported that some buildings had collapsed on Kyushu with people possibly trapped, though details were scarce.

Cameras set up by NHK showed violent shaking at the time of the quake, which was felt throughout Kyushu.

Japanese media reported that shinkansen, or bullet, train service was halted on the island.

NHK showed some damage including broken concrete. Residents stood outside making calls on mobile phones.

Watermelons fell from store shelves and lay crushed on the floor of a supermarket in Kumamoto city, near the epicenter, NHK footage showed.

Objects fell from shelves and staff ducked under desks as the quake shook the NHK office in Kumamoto, video showed.

“We intend to do the utmost to grasp the situation," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters. "I’m now planning to hear what we have gathered on the situation."

Kyushu Electric Co. said it was checking conditions at its Genkai and Sendai nuclear plants.

An official at the Sendai nuclear plant in Kyushu, who declined to be named, said the plant was operating normally but that officials were checking for any abnormalities.

There were no irregularities at the Genkai or Sendai nuclear plants, which are on the southernmost main island of Kyushu, or at the Ikata plant on nearby Shikkoku, the Kyodo news agency reported.

Japan sits at the junction of four tectonic plates and experiences around 20 percent of the world's most powerful earthquakes.

But rigid building codes and strict enforcement mean even powerful tremors frequently do little damage.

A massive undersea quake that hit on March 11, 2011, sent a tsunami barrelling into Japan's northeast coast, leaving about 18,500 people dead or missing, and sending several reactors into meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant in the worst atomic accident in a generation.

source: interaksyon.com