TOKYO — As Japan’s new prime minister sets out to hasten growth in Asia’s second-biggest economy, Shigeru Ishiba is about to learn the hard way that it’s really up to China.
Washington, too, where officials are stepping up efforts to ensure the US avoids the recession economists have been predicting for years. Beijing and Washington’s pivots toward stimulus will do more for Japan than anything lawmakers in Tokyo might muster in the months ahead.
An added challenge as Ishiba, 67, grabs the baton from Fumio Kishida will be lasting more than a year in power. Though Kishida’s been around for three years, and mentor Shinzo Abe lasted nearly eight from 2012 to 2020, Japanese premiers tend to get 12 months to make their mark. And history shows most don’t.