AsiaFile

A huge surprise in Tokyo tonight as Yasuo Fukuda, who had been Prime Minister for less than a year, abruptly stepped out from office…with no clear sign who will replace him.

“We need a new team to carry out policies,” Fukuda said at a hastily-called press conference. “I thought it would be better for someone else to do the job than me.”

Fukuda, 72, was a decent man who caught few breaks. Less nationalist — and more politically moderate — than his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, Fukuda never enjoyed a deep enough vein of solid support within his own party to negotiate from strength with the opposition Democrats at a time when the opposition controls the Upper House. He was intent on hosting the G-7 meeting in Hokkaido, but never was able to come to terms with an economy sliding precipitously into stagflation. And he was never able to cut a deal with Ichiro Ozawa, the mercurial head of the Democratic Party, on how the two parties might together create a comprehensive strategy to tackle Japan’s long-term economic and social challenges.

History will look upon Fukuda as another ineffectual placeholder at a time when Japan desperately needs some re-invention. His support levels recently have hovered only at 30 percent.
Alas, Fukuda’s departure won’t lead to more clarity, but to more discord and uncertainty. Taro Aso, a repeatedly failed candidate for PM, may well be chosen next…but he is likely to churn out more political storm than he diminishes, as he is known to make deeply undiplomatic comments

This new bout of political chaos does speed up the likelihood of a general election to sort out the nation’s political mess, but most pundits think Japan is at least two elections away from some semblance of political coherence.

It’s a wealthy-enough nation so there’s no sense of crisis, even if Japan is falling further and further behind world trends. And that’s unfortunate.