Taro Aso is not the most subtle of characters. The Wall Street Journal interviewed him (extracts here: Excerpts From Interview With Taro Aso. The Wall Street Journal is often gated, so if you’re unable to access the article try a a Google news search using the headline).
The article highlights what Aso said about Abe’s ambitions (and we’ve been saying for quite some time):
“Many people know that the real interest of Prime Minister Abe is not in economics. When he is equipped with full power and authority, he would rather work harder for his pet interests such as education and constitutional amendments. There’s a concern that once we get a victory in the upper house election, Mr. Abe might go in a direction away from economics. I still hold onto the view that we should concentrate on the economy for another few years. I hope this is the direction he’ll go. My job is to make sure we’ll take on that route.”
My bolding. Abe wants the ‘full power and authority” that will come from victory in the upper house elections due on Japan in July. You can expect continued hard pushing on the economy and deflation fight ahead of these, at least.
Aso’s comments also raise questions about potential leadership tensions in the LDP – but we’ll leave Japanese politics for another day.
