Abe's bounce

摘要

A couple of months ago, Shinzo Abe was being written off as yet another of Japan's many short-lived, forgettable prime ministers. Today pundits are scrambling to unwrite their articles of dismissal. Mr Abe himself talks about serving five years. His popularity ratings have recovered after a plunge that began almost from the moment he took office last September. And whereas earlier this year the secretary-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) upbraided cabinet members for not standing up or stopping chatting when the prime minister entered the room, today even his enemies in the LDP think Mr Abe might turn out to be an asset, rather than a liability to the government in this year's most important political battle, the election in July for half the seats in parliament's upper house.