Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, officially announced that he will step down due to health problems from ulcerative colitis.
On Friday, top lawmakers said that he would be doing so, in a bombshell development that will end a record-setting tenure with no clear successor in yet in place. He announced his decision at an emergency session of the ruling Liberal Demoractic party, sources reported.
Other lawmakers confirmed the account. The news came hours before Abe was due to give a press conference to address speculation about his health.
Tokyo stocks have fallen more than 2%, reversing earlier gains, in the light of this news. Until a succesor is decided, through an election of ruling party lawmakers and member,s Abe will stay in office, Inada, a close Abe ally told reporters.
Rumours about Abe’s possible resignation had intensified after two recent surprise hospital visits for unspecified medical checks, but in recent days, senior government officials had suggested he would serve out the rest of remaining year in office.
According to Shinichi Nishikawa, a professor of political science at Meiji University in Tokyo, the decision is a massive surprise.
“His resignation comes at a time when Japan is facing tough issues, including measures against the coronavirus,” Nishikawa told AFP.”There may be political confusion.”, he said.
Shinzo Abe will be unquiely familiar with this sitution, seeing as he ha already had to step down before, just one year into his first term in2007. He was later diagnosed woth ulcerative colitis, and on returing to offic ein 2012, said thta it was under control with the help of new medication.
And on Thursday, Suga told Bloomberg News that Abe would “of course” be able to serve out the rest of his term, which ends September 2021.
“He’ll be all right,” he said.
But the health problems appear to have piled on the pressure for Abe, who this week broke the record for the longest uninterrupted stint in office in Japanese history.
Initial reports suggest Abe plans to stay in office while a leadership contest is organised and party officials and members vote on his successor.
Among the candidates are deputy prime minister Taro Aso — who also serves as finance minister — and chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga, as well as former and current cabinet ministers.
