Japan’s prime minister resigns

Shinzo Abe announced Friday he will step down due to his declining health. The 65-year-old Japanese prime minister has battled ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease, since he was a teenager but had controlled it with treatment. He discovered during an annual checkup in June that his condition had worsened. Abe said it was “gut-wrenching” to leave before accomplishing his goals but explained he had lost energy and strength. He will remain in office until the Japanese parliament approves a new leader.

What is his legacy? Abe became Japan’s youngest-ever prime minister when he was appointed in 2006 at age 52, but he quit a year later due to his health. In December 2012, he returned to power and became the country’s longest-serving prime minister, winning six national elections. Abe solidified Japan’s security partnership with the United States but never achieved his goal of formally rewriting the U.S.-drafted, post–World War II pacifist constitution due to a lack of public support. His government pulled the nation out of recession nearly five years ago, but the coronavirus pandemic posed new economic challenges.

Dig deeper: Read Harvest Prude’s report on President Donald Trump’s 2019 visit to Japan.