The other day, during a business trip, I was met with a surprising piece of news: Prime Minister Abe’s resignation. Sensational headlines and titles were seen in newspaper extras, on TV and the Internet. I was, as the people whom I was with then, quite astounded.

Why now? I’m sure all of Japan was asking the same question hearing this news. Despite the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)’s loss of control over the Upper House following the election, Abe was pushing forward reforms and renewal by reshuffling the Cabinet, regaining points in his approval rating. Despite the scandal leading to Agriculture Minister Takehiko Endo’s resignation and other problems, Abe was showing the people his determination to continue, at least for the time being.

“No sense of responsibility,” “causing nothing but confusion,” “incomprehensible” and “bad timing” are some of the phrases most often used by the public reacting to this news, and I can’t but agree with them. I’m quite disappointed since I had expected quite a lot from Abe a year ago when he made a fresh appearance and assumed the Prime Minister’s office. I had hoped that he would take approaches different from Koizumi’s and set forth and execute a range of effective policy measures. His predecessor Koizumi declared “I’ll destroy the LDP framework” when he’d assumed the Prime Minister’s office and carried out various reforms, and it seems as if the LDP’s election mechanism was also destroyed in the last Upper House election.

Mass media reports that the main reasons for Abe’s resignation were the complicated issue over the proposed extended validity of the Anti-Terrorism Special Measures Law; the refusal by Ichiro Ozawa, leader of the Democratic Party, of a meeting; and Abe’s perception of his own lack of appeal. In any case, the Prime Minister’s general policy speech immediately followed by his declaration of resignation is a singularly unprecedented event, so much so that it’s quite natural if Abe were said to have just given up under the heavy responsibility of his post.

Some opinion leaders have voiced comments, and they are unanimous as to Abe’s detachment from the people’s point of view in his decision making on every issue.

I understand the heavy responsibility, stress and pressure that those at the top must assume. I imagine them to be by far heavier in politics, where you can find people plotting and doing evil, as well as for the prime minister at the top of that world. Nevertheless, any prime minister worth his salt is expected, and required, to be resourceful enough to endure the heavy pressure of the job. In our case, unfortunately, Abe was not able to grasp the situation quickly, plan and take action on time to obtain expected results, and then review the results and move forward with new measures. But still, Abe’s resignation leaves the impression that the country’s major problems left unresolved by generations of government finally burst out and blew him away.

Japan has a mountain of problems yet to be resolved, and there’s no room or time left for our political leaders to be absorbed in an internal power struggle, fighting over who will be Abe’s successor. I hope that a cabinet of best-qualified members will promptly be formed under the strong leadership of a new prime minister to bring the situation back to normalcy and start tackling the issues of national politics.