Former PM given second chance to reinvigorate Japan

The Liberal Democratic Party’s victory in Japan’s parliamentary election yesterday ensures Shinzo Abe, who resigned as prime minister for health reasons in 2007 after a year in office, will get a second chance to try to lead Japan out of its economic slump.

In Abe’s political resurrection, the Japanese have revealed hopes for a national comeback, backing Liberal Democrat pledges to restore the good times of the 1980s and 1990s, before the financial bubble burst and the economy slid into a 20-year funk.

Abe epitomises the LD brand of conservatism and nationalism that kept the party in power following the Second World War, until it was ousted by the Democratic Party of Japan in 2009.