The Prime Minister visited Tokyo's hospital for two weeks in a row for unspecified health checkup.
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has expressed his intention to step down from his designation due to his declining health, according to reports on Friday by NHK and other Japanese media. Reports state that Abe will meet top ruling officials at the party headquarters because the Liberal Democratic Party spokesman has not answered the phone.
It was speculated about his health issues earlier this summer, but it escalated when he visited Tokyo’s hospital for two weeks in a row for unspecified health checkup. Abe on Monday became Japan’s longest serving prime minister by consecutive days in office, eclipsing the record of Eisaku Sato, his great-uncle, who served 2,798 days from 1964 to 1972.
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Abe’s tenure is till September 2021 and he is planning till the new party leader will formally be elected and approved by the parliament. Earlier, in 2007 he resigned because of his declining health and the same concerns and speculations are arising by looking at his present condition. However, it has yet to be confirmed by the prime minister’s office.
Shigeru Ishiba, a 63-year-old hawkish former defence minister and Abe’s archrival, is a favorite next leader in media surveys, though he is less popular within the ruling party. A low-key former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, Defence Minister Taro Kono, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, and economic revitalization minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who is in charge of coronavirus measures, are widely speculated in Japanese media as his potential successors, as per the reports of leading online website.
