Abe's health will be under scrutiny again

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife Akie celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary on June 9. They dined with friends at an Italian restaurant in Tokyo’s Yoyogi district. Back home later that night, the prime minister collapsed. A doctor was called. He came immediately, examined the patient, and said hospitalization was unnecessary.

The episode is reported by Shukan Shincho (June 29) – which, seeking further elucidation from official sources, came up against a stone wall. It was nothing, aides insisted – a case of stiff shoulders. Stiff shoulders! ripostes the magazine. Do doctors come running in the middle of the night to massage stiff shoulders? It sounds implausible. Seasoned journalists know, however, that “the health of a head of state is top secret” – especially when it’s bad.

In Abe’s case, his first term as prime minister ended abruptly with his resignation in 2007, after a mere year in office. His administration was floundering. Upper House election losses were blamed on him. The stress was intense. A chronic illness Abe suffers from – colitis – flares under stress. Whether bad health was the real reason for his resignation or merely a pretext he preferred to a frank admission of failure remains an open question. But it put the nation on notice that his health bears watching.

Since regaining power in 2012, Abe has orchestrated triumph after triumph, electoral and legislative. His Liberal Democratic Party dominates both houses of parliament. His personal support ratings have been consistently high. Overriding opposition protests with impunity, he has reinterpreted the Constitution and forced the passage of controversial legislation strengthening Japan’s military, reinforcing protection of government secrecy and, most recently, criminalizing the planning of certain crimes whether the crimes are actually committed or not. Revision of the Constitution, a long-cherished personal goal widely shared among conservatives who consider its American-style emphasis on rights and freedoms an imposition, has under Abe’s leadership come within reach.

Then, suddenly, he stumbled. What he stumbled over has become so familiar nationwide that it’s enough here to simply cite the names of the educational institutions to which he allegedly showed illegitimate favoritism: Moritomo Gakuen and Kake Gakuen. An energized opposition bore down on him. His explanations were judged perfunctory and inadequate. His support ratings plunged. Voters inSunday’s Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election handed his LDP an historically sharp rebuff.

In short, his current situation bears more than a passing resemblance to his situation in September 2007, when his colitis flared and he resigned. A late-night visit by a doctor to the prime minister’s official residence is more than personal. It may have national political significance. Days later, notes Shukan Shincho, Abe was visibly unwell at a meeting with Ethiopia’s visiting deputy prime minister. The Tokyo election results will not ease his stress. Politically speaking, he may be in serious condition.

© Japan Today