Although the current ordinary Diet session wraps up Wednesday, just as the ruling party coalition desires, do not expect headaches for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to disappear anytime soon.
At the beginning of the year, the 150-day session was supposed to be relatively smooth sailing for him. With the Tokyo gubernatorial election and the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics slated for the summer, he would have wanted to keep confrontation to as little as possible and focus on advancing his domestic agenda, including his long-held ambition of amending the Constitution.
But then the novel coronavirus came, knocking down his political schedule and plans in one fell swoop. The public was irked by the government’s sluggish and ineffective response in the early stages of the outbreak, which helped push his approval rating downward. In one poll, his rating fell into the upper 20s, an alarming range, following the ruckus over the prosecutor retirement extension bill and the resignation of the top Tokyo prosecutor, who was seen as having been close to the Prime Minister’s Office.