Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, is likely to resign in June after two cronyism scandals sent his approval ratings to an all-time low and risk damaging his party’s fortunes in elections next year, according to one of Japan’s most popular postwar leaders.
Junichiro Koizumi, a flamboyant reformer who was prime minister from 2001-06, told a weekly magazine published on Monday that Abe has found himself in a “dangerous” situation over the scandals, adding: “Won’t he resign around the time the current parliamentary session ends [on 20 June]?”
Speaking to Aera magazine, Koizumi said Abe could harm his Liberal Democratic party’s chances in next summer’s upper house elections if he manages to cling on to the LDP presidency in a leadership election due in September.
Abe has been badly bruised by allegations of cronyism centering on the heavily discounted sale of public land to the operator of an ultra-nationalist kindergartenin Osaka with links to his wife, Akie Abe.
He has consistently denied any wrongdoing, and said he would resign if he or his wife were shown to have been intervened in the sale of the land.
The finance ministry recently admitted to tampering with documents to remove references to Abe and his wife in papers relating to the decision to provide an 85% discount on the appraised value of the land.
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