Should we be comforted or surprised by the realization that the election of Shinzo Abe as Prime Minister of Japan — and the fulfilment of Junichiro Koizumi's pledge to retire from the executive post after the passage of promised reforms — happened so quietly that neither event secured a major headline? Well — we might think about the high relative value that the corporate press assigns to drama or contention. The Liberal Democratic Party, factious as it can be on some things, forms Tokyo's perpetual Diet majority; and the prime ambition of Koizumi's former chief cabinet secretary wasn't a secret, nor was Abe's accession seriously contested or doubted. Using that scale, "Prime Minister Abe" is ho-hum.
For Abe and the Japanese, however, matters need settling that are, LDP solidarity aside, portentous. The Diet — and the balance of the Japanese public — believes Japan deserves a standing army without having to resort to constitutional acrobatism. There are alliances to consider, domestic priorities to order, market policies to rectify, all for a country whose demure governments have for sixty years belied its colossal potential. Maybe it's best Abe knows for a fact that all eyes are not on him.