My goodness, Mr.Abe has resigned unexpectedly but understandably.
More or less, he had to follow the scenario, which media tacitly concocted for him---the fate for
any politician in today's populist society.

Under his leadership the Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner Komeitou had a histo-
rical defeat in Upper House's election in July. In the past two prime ministers opted for resignation
after similar defeats, but Mr.Abe did not follow their suit.

Since then the media has been tormenting him, reporting one after another bad story, which, alas, Mr.Abe's Cabinet offered in abundance. Within two weeks after the formulation of new Cabinet
one minister had to resigin because of political funding issue.

The last blow came, when Mr.Abe declared unexpectedly and without prior notification to the key
persons in his Party that he is ready to resign, if the opposition party, Democratic Party under Mr.Ozawa, will not let him continue to send vessels of the Self-Defense Forces to the Indian Ocean
(by force of a special law which expires in November, these vessels are supplying fuel to American
and other military vessels which are figthing against terrorism in Afghanistan), he will surely
resign.

Probably this haphazard statement (politicians should not mention resignation so easily) prompted
the major figures of the Liberal Democratic Party to abandon Abe---now. And Komeitou may have
joined the move. Because if things will develop with Mr.Abe at the top, probably all new major bills
will be blocked in the Upper House where the ruling alliance does not have majority, and thus soo-
ner or later Abe will be forced to dissolove the Diet for a general election. But no one wanted
to fight the campaign with Mr.Abe, underdog, as their face.

So, now is the most opportune time to dump him. Without him the Democratic Party will lose the
target in the Diet session which has just started. The only target for them will be the bill which
enables Japan to cooperate with its ally, the USA, and this will put the Democratic Party in a diffi-
cult position.

When prime minister resigns, a new one is elected in the Diet where the Ruling coalition has a
majority. It is hard to predict who will become candidates.

And no matter who will become next prime minister, his or her job will be daunting. Because if you
execute reforms (for example stream-lining of the budget), you will surely undermine the basis of
your own party. Mr.Koizumi did it, and the provinces and the lower-income people were hit by his
measures. So, the Upper House election result was a revolt against these measures.
The masses, now waking up from the pleasant anesthesia by Mr.Koizumi, are demanding a fairer (in
their eyes) distribution of wealth. Yesterday one taxi driver snarled at me, saying that Japan would
become much nicer, if all government officials are terminated ( I told him that I had quitted the
job long, long time ago).

So, replacement of prime minister will not change our policy---it will just remain paralyzed.