Abe agonistes

摘要

Shinzo abe, who will become Japan's new prime minister on December 26th, is wasting little time in offering the goodies. The leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (ldp), which staged a remarkable return to power in elections on December 16th, has made reviving an economy sapped by deflation the central goal of his "crisis-beating" cabinet. It is likely to start with pressure on the central bank to reflate the economy. A big dollop of public spending may follow (smothering the country in concrete is an old speciality of the party). As for Japan's trade-damaging tensions with China, the hawkish Mr Abe wants to put them to one side for now.