In search of a Japanese Macron-like saviour

JAPANESE politics has reverted to a "status quo ante" situation - or, to put it more bluntly, it has reached an apparent dead end. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party is firmly back in control while the main opposition Democratic Party, once seen as a force for change, has collapsed.

To all intents and purposes, Japan has become a "single-party democracy" where the electorate has little or no chance of booting out the ruling party no matter how badly it performs, whatever political scandals it gets involved in and however low its voter ratings sink.

Against this rather depressing background, the search for a "Japanese Macron" to appear deus ex machina-like from the wings and save the country from the risk of totalitarianism has begun. But when and whence shall come such a political saviour? That is the question.