For a leader who's displayed no shortage of tough-guy tendencies, why does Shinzo Abe act so timidly when it comes to Japan's economy?
That might seem like a strange question to ask today, when the prime minister appears ready to call a dramatic snap election to win support for his economic policies. After an annualized 1.6 percent plunge in third-quarter growth, which has technically pushed Japan back into recession, Abe is hoping for a mandate to postpone a proposed sales-tax increase due next year.
I've argued previously that Japan's tottering economy can't afford another growth-killing tax bump; the last one, in April, caused the economy to contract by 7.3 percent in the second quarter. Scrapping the increase isn't the issue. The question is why Abe doesn't just step to the podium and announce the new policy, rather than distracting Japan's bureaucracy and political establishment for the rest of 2014 with another election campaign.