Abe’s Record-Setting Tenure Leaves Japan Asking What’s Next
The country’s seven-year stretch of economic growth may be coming to an end, imperiling the longest-serving prime minister’s legacy.
Shinzo Abe at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia, on Sept. 5.
Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg
Just over seven years ago, Shinzo Abe was a political has-been purveying eccentric monetary policy. Now—as of today—he’s Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, breaking a record that had stood for more than a century.
Abe’s 2007 resignation after an abortive first term in office kicked off a whirlwind of prime ministers—six came and went in as many years—and helped pave the way for his Liberal Democratic Party’s humiliating defeat in 2009, after 54 almost uninterrupted years in power. Abe used his years in the wilderness to develop a new focus, training his political messaging on the kinds of kitchen table issues that have today won him six straight national elections. Through a combination of skill and luck, he’s become an unlikely beacon of stability in an increasingly unpredictable world.