Unpopular policies and a slew of scandals triggered a slide in public support for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that led to a heavy election defeat.

That was in 2007, when he abruptly resigned, citing health issues, after losing the Upper House of the Diet. A decade on, his situation looks uncomfortably familiar.

Abe returned to Tokyo on Tuesday from a curtailed European trip to face lost public trust and record low voter support. Ministerial gaffes and his failure to allay suspicions over a cronyism scandal involving a close friend contributed to his ruling party suffering an historic defeat in the recent Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election. The public is wary of his plan to rush through a revision to the pacifist Constitution.