Japan: alarming rumors about the health of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

Text by: Frédéric Charles

3 min

Two visits to a Tokyo hospital in one week for in-depth medical examinations. The state of health of Shinzo Abe, the head of government of the world's third-largest economy, is of growing concern. Especially since he had already had to leave power for the first time, in September 2007, for health reasons. Do we know what the Japanese Prime Minister is suffering from?

Publicity

from our correspondent in Tokyo,

Shinzo Abe promises to give details of his medical tests this Friday, August 28. The head of government is prone to attacks of ulcerative colitis, an incurable disease of the intestine from which he has suffered since the age of 17. In 2007, his first stint at the head of Japan was brief, barely a year: his attacks of ulcerative colitis had already got the better of the Prime Minister. “  I had to go to the bathroom 30 times a day,  ” Shinzo Abe explained. Since his return to power in 2012, a drug has allowed him to alleviate his intestinal disorders and pain. But the disease may have returned. According to his relatives, he coughed up blood in early July.

Shinzo Abe's term as head of the Japanese government runs until September 2021. The Japanese press is wondering: can he remain in his post until then? The Japanese media go further: they speak of the end of the “  Abe era  ”. They scrutinize the slightest change in his physical appearance, compare the number of steps he takes each day and at what pace compared to his usual average. This week, even after a second hospital visit, Shinzo Abe broke a longevity record as Prime Minister of Japan with 2,800 days in a row in a single term. He wants to hang on to power until September 2021 to halo - if they take place - the success of the Tokyo Games set for the summer of next year .

Lack of credible alternation

These concerns about Shinzo Abe's health come as his popularity in opinion polls is at an all-time low. More than 70% of Japanese say they are unhappy with his handling of the coronavirus epidemic. However, the country is managing this crisis better than Europe and the United States, with nearly 62,000 infections, 1,200 deaths for a population of 126 million inhabitants. But there has been an upsurge in infections since July. Shinzo Abe is criticized for prioritizing the economy, underestimating the severity of the epidemic and only carrying out a low number of tests.

In the meantime, the ruling conservative party is doing everything to prevent an early departure of the Prime Minister. Shinzo Abe neglected structural reforms to reinvent a new model of growth and society, responding to the shock linked to the Covid-19 pandemic. His potential successors are anything but reformists. And the opposition does not appear to be a credible alternation.

► See also: The Japanese economy continues to plunge due to the pandemic

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