Abe faces make-or-break test three years after taking office

I don't like the way the word "enormity" has been devalued so that now it just means bigness. It's real meaning is wickedness or depravity and I think this meaning is more apt in relation to Abe's grand ambitions.

And replaced by who? Hashimoto?

My (Abe) Goal for 2016 is to accomplish the goals of 2015 which I should have done in 2014 because I made a promise in 2013 and planned in 2012. God's delays aren't God's denials L0L !

"Abe's great advantage is that voters think there is no better alternative."

I've been saying this for quite some time now. Even my Japanese friends have contended that Abe was their default choice because those in the opposition are too effete to pose a challenge. It's like picking which bullet to shoot yourself in the foot with.

Abe's great advantage is that voters think there is no better alternative

not think, know. There is no better alternative. The opposition here is like in the US - they'll whine and complain about the status quo, but they don't provide anything plausible as an alternative.

Abe-san did succeed in one area. His policies boosted prices across the board here in Japan. Luckily gasoline prices at the pump are down ... but this is a world-wide trend as an oil glut continues to build.

Morever, the above story doesn't paint a rosy picture. Just hope 2016 is better than this year ... as a matter of fact, better than since Abe took control.

It is better to have an incompetent leader than the dis-honest Abe. Given Japan's demographics, the promise of Japan's return through Abenomics was simply a ruse to transfer huge amounts of public money into the hands of the financial and corporate elite. That some in the media still talk of make-or-break time shows just how inept the fourth estate is in this country.

I'm guessing Abe basically likes the way things are and the system that sustains his click in power. He'll preserve the status quo and the next generation, devoid of energy and sense, won't know what hit them.

It should already be a "break" since a long time if apathy was not the backbone of the voting system here.

Abe took his eye off the ball, as they say in the US. Me made lots of promises about the economy, but then spent is time getting the secrets act passed, and getting Japan remilitarized, to make his grandpa proud. It was a case of classic bait and switch, as they say in the US.

Another leader with big goals, but no ideas on how to reach them.

It was an irresistible promise: elect me, I’ll bring back Japan’s once-soaring economy and restore its battered national pride.

LOL. Sounds earily similar to many of the statements being made by the Republican candidates here in the U.S.

“Compared to the magnitude of Abenomics’ stimulus, the economy’s performance has been feeble,” said Ryutaro Kono, economist at BNP Paribas.

The understatement of the year.

I am curious how many here are better off than 3 years ago...

I am curious how many here are better off than 3 years ago...

I am, but that's because we make a lot of money billing in overseas currency - the weak yen increased our intake significantly. But by no means is my company the norm.

"It was an irresistible promise: elect me, I’ll bring back Japan’s once-soaring economy and restore its battered national pride." It was? This guy gets less votes every time there is an election and his first "win" will be remembered by an all-time low voter participation level. I've said it before and I'll say it again; Abe killed Japan when he rewrote labor laws saying companies are no longer required to hire full-time people. Japan is like a barge at sea that just had its motors cut; the momentum will continue for a while but the full-stop is coming. I hope I'm wrong but I don't think I am.

Abe's leadersip may be problematic, but to say that higher flexibility on the job market hurt Japan is just silly. Young people these days don't even normally look forward to being stuck with the same company for years. This is an increasing trend around the Western hemisphere and I am sure it is an increasing important phenomenon in Japan too.

Conservative nationalists like Abe favor Big Money/Big Fist policies which further increase the inequality of the people, and rob them of their futures. Haven't we had enough of that nonsense?