Will Mr Abe return to old health problems?

Abe: Adamant not to compromise over sovereignty issue.

JAPAN’S former, and now future, prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has been welcomed back to the job he threw away five years ago because, according to a story he told Tokyo-based Bungei Shunju magazine, he was suffering ulcerative colitis or an intermittent inflammatory bowel disease. That doesn’t bode well for his Cabinet, which is expected to be launched before the end of this year.

Abe, currently the country’s prime minister-elect, has promised to do his utmost to rebuild Japan as a “new country” in contrast to the “beautiful country” he vowed to turn it into when he succeeded Junichiro Koizumi in September 2006. The new promise is apt, for Japan stands at a crossroads and the direction it takes is critical to determining whether it can remain a leading power in the world.