Shinzo Abe’s victory in a Liberal Democratic Party election reflects fatigue in Japan over a conveyor belt of leaders.
TOKYO — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won a commanding victory in a vote for the leadership of Japan’s governing party on Thursday, moving him closer to his dream of becoming the longest-serving prime minister in the country’s history and fueling his hopes of revising its pacifist Constitution.
Mr. Abe’s win over a single challenger came despite the headwinds he faced from domestic political scandals, stagnant wages and his declining influence with President Trump, particularly in negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear program.
The victory gives Mr. Abe, 63, a new three-year term as president of the Liberal Democratic Party and assures him of remaining prime minister. If he remains in office until November 2019 — just short of seven years after he was elected in December 2012 — he will surpass the previous longevity record for prime minister, set during the Meiji era in the early 20th century by Taro Katsura.
Mr. Abe faces a full slate of challenges, including towering national debt, the increasing threat of climate change-related disasters, a rapidly aging society and the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
“Cooperating with you, I’d like to do my best to hand over to our children’s generation a Japan filled with hope and pride,” Mr. Abe said in his acceptance speech.
Above all, analysts said, Mr. Abe’s signature accomplishment is his stable political leadership in a country that had grown weary of a conveyor belt of prime ministers.
Critics have been disappointed by Mr. Abe’s entanglement in influence-peddling scandals and his failure to deliver stronger economic growth or the gender equality measures that he has long promised. But his opponent in the party election, Shigeru Ishiba, a former defense minister, failed to generate enough enthusiasm to justify a change of course.
“People may not be wildly excited, but they can’t think of anybody who is going to do any better,” said Sheila A. Smith, a Japan expert at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. “Whether it’s the party or it’s the Japanese voter writ large, I think they are pretty risk averse right now, given all the challenges that Japan faces, not the least of which is the Trump administration.”
Next week in New York, Mr. Abe, who has persistently cultivated a cozy relationship with Mr. Trump, is expected to meet with him on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. Mr. Abe could come under pressure to enter bilateral trade talks as the Trump administration mulls threatened tariffs on automobile imports.
