Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced his resignation on Wednesday. Mr. Abe managed to hang on for more than a month after his Liberal Democratic Party suffered an embarrassing defeat (also here) in elections July 29 for seats in the upper house of the Japanese Parliament. Since the LDP still controls the lower house, which chooses the Prime Minister, Mr. Abe was under no legal obligation to resign, but political opposition and a series of Republican-like scandals finally made his position untenable.
Mr. Abe is a militaristic nationalist, arguably a right-winger in the Bush mold, and a natural ally to the Bush Administration. One spark for Mr. Abe's resignation may have been his support for legislation extending an operation under which Japanese ships in the Indian Ocean refuel US vessels involved in military operations in Afghanistan.
Probably more important, though, was a series of scandals that have plagued Mr. Abe and his government. As the BBC reports:
His health minister drew criticism in January when he referred to women as "birth-giving machines".
A scandal-hit farm minister committed suicide in May and his defence minister resigned over controversial comments about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
But most damaging to Mr Abe was the revelation that over the years the government lost pension records affecting about 50m claims.
Clearly this is a guy whose political tin ear rivals that of our own Dear Leader.
The Japanese stock market ended a bit lower on the news, but that seems to be just a routine reaction to political uncertainty.
It would appear that the Bush Administration has lost an ally in Mr. Abe, and it seems unlikely that his successor will be either as militaristic or as conservative. The news broke overnight US time, so as yet there doesn't appear to be any official reaction from the Administration or Congressional leaders.