Word: abely
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...spent-fuel pool and into the nearby ocean. Tokyo Electric also announced that 100 drums containing radioactive solid waste were toppled, and some radioactive material was detected in one of the main exhaust pipes that emit the plant's treated emissions into the open air. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe criticized the company for failing to respond quickly enough in the quake's aftermath. Tokyo Electric President Tsunehisa Katsumata apologized, saying "We were not aware of the dangers." He added that Monday was a national holiday, which delayed the assembly of response teams...
...Abe's woes are especially galling because when he became Prime Minister last September, it seemed he could do no wrong. Although known as a staunch nationalist, his first act was to visit Beijing and Seoul, patching up strained relations with Japan's key trading partners. But foreign-policy coups were soon overshadowed by a perception that Abe's domestic agenda was lacking. While he spoke of boosting Japan's role abroad and revising the country's pacifist constitution, the public was focused on bread-and-butter economic issues. "When Abe talks about the constitution, people think, 'What about...
...That disengagement-and his own conciliatory nature-might have led Abe to take too light a hand with his ministerial team. Despite promises that he would centralize power in the Prime Minister's office, bureaucrats have recovered some of the influence they'd lost under Koizumi's reform-minded administration. Abe's own ministers have fallen into scandal after scandal. By July 8 even one of Abe's substitute ministers-Agriculture Minister Norihiko Akagi, named to replace the late Matsuoka-was mired in a fresh campaign-funding scandal. "He's just not any good at picking his team," says...
...individual identification numbers. In the process up to 50 million names were mistakenly recorded, making it difficult to match payments with people. Though the mistakes occurred under a different administration, and almost all accounts should eventually be joined to their owners, the DPJ used the pension scandal to hammer Abe, who seemed slow to realize its importance. The strategy played to the fears of a Japanese public worried about the viability of their pensions given the country's aging, declining population. Abe belatedly pushed through bills to reform the inefficient SIA, but the pension scandal seemed to prove that...
...unclear just how badly the LDP would have to lose in the coming elections for Abe to be forced out. Though Kono believes Abe should stay on, a recent internal LDP poll projected the party might win as few as 37 seats-well short of what would be needed to hold onto the Upper House. "If that's the case, he'll probably have to go," Kono says. The likely successor would be Foreign Minister Taro Aso, who finished a distant second to Abe in last September's LDP presidential contest and who covets the top job. But the stern...