Continuity in Japan

Shinzo Abe's resounding victory augurs well for India

Those who closely follow Japan’s politics frequently refer to the “Abe conundrum”. Jeff Kingston of Temple University in Tokyo explains it as Mr Abe winning one election after another despite being “basically unpopular with voters”. The stunning victory in Sunday’s election – the Mr Abe-led Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its allies crossed the two-thirds majority mark in Parliament – further reinforced this long-standing puzzle. In fact, a sustained dip in Mr Abe’s public approval ratings, which fell below 30 per cent, and a series of minor scandals and political embarrassments, had forced him to call for snap polls. Mr