TOKYO: Japan’s Shinzo Abe, beset by scandals and a recent crushing loss in Tokyo elections, is likely to opt for safe hands over new faces in a cabinet reshuffle on Thursday that may not deliver the prime minister as much of a boost as he hopes…
TOKYO: Japan’s Shinzo Abe, beset by scandals and a recent crushing loss in Tokyo elections, is likely to opt for safe hands over new faces in a cabinet reshuffle on Thursday that may not deliver the prime minister as much of a boost as he hopes.
Opinion polls show support for Abe has plunged to its lowest since he returned to office in December 2012 with a promise to revive Japan’s stale economy and bolster its defences, endangering his goal of revising the pacifist constitution.
Abe had until recently also been seen as likely to win a third term as head of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and thus the premiership, putting him on track to be Japan’s longest-serving prime minister.
But support has fallen below 30 percent in the polls, hit by opposition-fanned suspicions of Abe’s favouritism to a friend, as well as voter perceptions that he and his aides have grown arrogant in office. The LDP’s defeat by a novice political party in a July assembly election has also hurt him.
„The goal of this cabinet reshuffle is to intensify ‚Abenomics‘ and aim mainly for economic reform, “ Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference on Wednesday, referring to Abe’s signature plans to reboot the economy.
