Shinzo Abe leaves office amid major challenges gripping Japan

THERE were always question marks over Shinzo Abe's health since he returned to the office of Japan's prime minister in 2012. His announcement last Friday that he would be stepping down would have had Japanese recalling his decision to relinquish the post in 2007 for the same reason - ulcerative colitis. Moreover, his decision comes at a time when Japan faces significant challenges on many fronts.

Mr Abe himself has apologised for his failure to resolve the issue of people abducted years ago by North Korea, a territorial dispute with Russia and a revision to Japan's war-renouncing constitution. Pyongyang has shown no interest in talks with Tokyo. The fate of the islands that the Japanese call the Northern Territories and the Russian call the Southern Kurils is no closer to resolution than when Mr Abe took office. The islands were occupied by Soviet forces immediately after Japan's surrender at the end of World War II. The resulting dispute over the islands' sovereignty and the lack of a peace treaty between Russia and Japan have hampered bilateral ties despite 27 meetings between Mr Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin. His pursuit of changes to the pacifist clauses in Japan's US "imposed" constitution did not garner much public support. The Japanese remained chary with his rhetoric about making Japan a "normal" nation with a strong military, and a role in international affairs commensurate with its economic position as the world's third largest economy.

Again, by his own reckoning, Mr Abe managed to end 20 years of deflation with his "three arrows" economic strategy - monetary easing, fiscal spending and structural reforms - to reignite the economy after years of anaemic growth and falling prices. To be fair the reforms worked - up to a point. The Bank of Japan's money printing (aka 2 per cent inflation targeting) exercise did improve business sentiment and weaken the yen. Consequently, there was modest wage growth and some improvement in employment numbers. But his proposed reforms to boost productivity and ease conditions in the labour market proved elusive. He could do nothing about the nation's rapidly ageing population, given Japan's aversion to large scale immigration on top of a very low birthrate.