When Shigeru Ishiba became the 65th Japanese prime minister on Tuesday, it represents a remarkable break with the recent past.
All of the candidates to replace Fumio Kishida were flawed. But given public discontent with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, the publicly popular Ishiba — a fierce critic of the late Shinzo Abe, whose faction was most implicated in recent scandals over funding and influence — was the safest choice. Faced with the option of a successor to Abe or his polar opposite, the party has broken with over a decade of orthodoxy.
A change might do the country some good. But is it a step in the right direction? Say what you will about Abe’s goals or how he went about them, but you can’t deny the clarity of his vision: A strong nation that can put its wartime guilt aside to become a global actor befitting of its size, with a government that will do what it takes to create a powerful economy.
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