Abe becomes Japan’s fourth longest-serving post-war PM
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe became on Monday the fourth longest-serving Japanese leader in the postwar era with 1,807 days in office, surpassing the tenure of former prime minister Yasuhiro Nakasone.
The figure combines Abe’s first stint in power from 2006 to 2007 – before he resigned citing ill health – with his second administration that began in December 2012.
“I want to do all I can to achieve results each and every day, without arrogance and with a calm mind,” Abe, 62, told reporters on Monday morning.
Abe said he “looks up to” Nakasone, 98, a fellow proponent of amending the Japanese Constitution.
Japanese law has no limit on how long prime ministers can serve, but by convention they must remain the leaders of their parties.
Abe’s second term as president of the Liberal Democratic Party is set to end in September 2018. If the LDP officially approves a plan at its convention in March to allow party presidents to serve a maximum of three terms over nine years, Abe, if re-elected, could surpass Eisaku Sato’s 2,798-day record as the longest-running leader since the end of the second world war in August 2019.
If he is still in power in November 2019, Abe could become Japan’s longest-serving prime minister even when prewar and wartime leaders are taken into account, beating Taro Katsura’s record of 2,886 days served in the 1900s and 1910s.
