Japan's Longest-Serving PM, Shinzo Abe, Resigns For Health Reasons (apnews.com) 22
Late last night, it was rumored that Japan's longest-serving prime minister, Shinzo Abe, would step down due to his struggle with ulcerative colitis. Abe confirmed the reports this morning, telling reporters that it was "gut wrenching" to leave many of his goals unfinished. He also apologized for stepping down during the pandemic. The Associated Press reports: 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. Slashdot reader shanen writes: [...] In theory, [Shinzo Abe] was the supreme leader of one of the most important countries in the technological world. In practice, not so much?
At a minimum, the New Akiba is far different from the Akihabara of yore, but maybe it's just a chronological coincidence? They are making quite pretty COVID-19 sneeze pictures with the new Japanese supercomputer. I have to admit that either Abe hasn't accomplished that much or he's pretty bad at tooting his own horn. I would be surprised if anyone could articulate what Abe actually stood for even after all these years in the spotlight.
Perhaps the funny part is that Abe was apparently just clinging to power to set a new endurance record as Prime Minister. He passed the old number one just a few days ago. But looking forward, I'm actually more interested in trigger effects. My current speculation is that Kishida will snag the ring and he's liable to come out much stronger against China. Xi was already annoyed and I am still expecting stock market turmoil in October, but this may make it worse. Further reading: Japan's Longest-Serving PM, Shinzo Abe, Quits In Bid To 'Escape' Potential Prosecution
"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. Slashdot reader shanen writes: [...] In theory, [Shinzo Abe] was the supreme leader of one of the most important countries in the technological world. In practice, not so much?
At a minimum, the New Akiba is far different from the Akihabara of yore, but maybe it's just a chronological coincidence? They are making quite pretty COVID-19 sneeze pictures with the new Japanese supercomputer. I have to admit that either Abe hasn't accomplished that much or he's pretty bad at tooting his own horn. I would be surprised if anyone could articulate what Abe actually stood for even after all these years in the spotlight.
Perhaps the funny part is that Abe was apparently just clinging to power to set a new endurance record as Prime Minister. He passed the old number one just a few days ago. But looking forward, I'm actually more interested in trigger effects. My current speculation is that Kishida will snag the ring and he's liable to come out much stronger against China. Xi was already annoyed and I am still expecting stock market turmoil in October, but this may make it worse. Further reading: Japan's Longest-Serving PM, Shinzo Abe, Quits In Bid To 'Escape' Potential Prosecution
"Health reasons" (Score:5, Interesting)
https://www.thedailybeast.com/... [thedailybeast.com]
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Have you got a non paywalled link?
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The Daily Beast is opinions and fake news - and sadly, supports censorship. Can't trust anything they write. I am not saying this particular article is fake - I'm saying check other sources.
UC (Score:2)
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Yes, I was wondering if that pun was intentional or not.
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... I just clicked on the "more information" link, and it inform me "he leaves office unable to stomach the job".
Geeks (Score:1)
this piece of news was for politics geeks, I presume?
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The Trump Campaign should be paying you. Thanks for all you do.
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It's Godzilla-adjacent news.
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gut wrenching (Score:2)
Was that a pun, considering he has ulcerative colitis?
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It's a shitty disease.
(Disclosure, raising a child with UC, and have two other close family members with it. The pejorative isn't strong enough)
"Quits In Bid To 'Escape' Potential Prosecution" (Score:2)
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Mod parent funny.
However I'm doubtful the Japanese people care that much about political corruption in Japan, though I might be wrong. I was recently surprised by the actual arrest of a couple of vote-buying politicians from Abe's own party. Actually is a couple, man and wife. The name Anri comes to mind? I wasn't at all surprised by the vote buying itself, but just that they were so clumsy about it. The husband was a fairly experienced politician.
So he beat Junichiro's record? (Score:2)
Japan was getting one new PM a year for quite a while, so the only thing I'm surprised about is that he beat Junichiro Koizumi's record in the end.
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He passed the old number one just a few days ago.
Well at least he's not number two now!