China sends Abe message of goodwill

On Friday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced his resignation from office due to health reasons. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has wished him a speedy recovery and praised him for the efforts he had made to work with China to get relations between the two countries back on track.

The leaders of the two countries have reached an important consensus on promoting the establishment of bilateral relations that meet the requirements of the new era, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told reporters.

Doubtlessly, his health has become a major difficulty for Abe, who has been in office for over 2,700 days, and who will continue as prime minister until his successor is named.

Whoever succeeds him, China is willing to work with the Japanese side to deepen anti-epidemic and economic cooperation, and promote the continuous improvement and development of bilateral ties.

In August, the number of new novel coronavirus infections in Japan rose sharply, accounting for almost one-third of the total number of infections since the start of the epidemic.

The Japanese economy has also taken a big hit from the pandemic. Abe took office in 2012, he implemented "Abenomics" that stressed loose monetary policies and stimulated the Japanese economy. Partly as a result of that, Japan's GDP growth rate reached 2.0 percent in 2013 and kept that rate for four years.

Yet in 2018, the rate dropped to 0.79 percent and further to 0.65 percent in 2019. It was anticipated that the Tokyo Olympic Games that were due to be held this year would be a shot in the arm for the Japanese economy. Anyone who watched Rio Olympics must remember how Abe, dressed up as Super Mario, appeared in front of audiences. Unfortunately, the Games have had to be postponed because of the pandemic.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, Abe's cabinet has rolled out an unprecedented economic stimulus package to counter the economic fallout, which is beginning to deliver results as the economy appears to be on a recovery track.

However, most experts believe that the recovery will be very slow as Japan's economy lacks momentum due to weak domestic and external demand.

Although Abe and his cabinet will run the government until his successor is elected, they will not be able to adopt new policies.

－WANG HAIBIN, AN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AT THE SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, UNIVERSITY OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS