日本首相安倍晋三宣布辞去首相职务
日本首相安倍晋三宣布辞去首相职务
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当地时间28日下午，日本首相安倍晋三召开新闻发布会称，为了避免因旧疾恶化而影响执政，决定辞去首相职务。
安倍晋三表示，在今年6月定期体检时，发现旧疾溃疡性大肠炎有复发征兆，并在8月上旬确认该疾病复发。为了避免个人健康状况影响执政，正式表明辞去日本首相一职的意向。
安倍还表示，余下的任期还有约一年时间。他将不设临时代理，任职到选出下一任首相为止，以尽职责。
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the country's longest-serving leader, announced at a press conference on Friday that he has decided to step down due to health reasons.
"Now that I am not able to fulfill the mandate from the people with confidence, I have decided that I should no longer occupy the position of the prime minister," Abe said.
The 65-year-old politician battled ulcerative colitis disease for years, and two recent hospital visits within a week had fanned questions on whether he could stay in the job until the end of his term as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and hence, premier, in September 2021.
安倍晋三
安倍1954年出生于日本东京都，2006年9月底首次当选日本首相。翌年9月，因支持率大降及罹患溃疡性大肠炎宣布辞职。2012年12月，安倍再度担任日本首相至今。截至本月24日，安倍自再次就任首相以来已连续在位2799天，打破了日本首相连续在位时间最长纪录。
During his first tenure as prime minister, which started in late September 2006, Abe abruptly stepped down from his post in 2007 due to chronic ulcerative colitis. He returned as prime minister for a rare second term in December 2012, pledging to revive growth with his "Abenomics" mix of hyper-easy monetary policy, fiscal spending and reforms. He also pledged to beef up Japan's defense and aimed to revise the pacifist constitution.
安倍近来因频繁就医而引发外界对其健康问题的担忧。据了解，本月17日，安倍晋三在位于东京的庆应大学附属医院接受了约7个半小时的身体检查，随后在24日再次接受检查。
Abe said his health started declining around the middle of last month, and he did not want it to impact on important policy decisions.
"I apologize from the bottom of my heart that despite all of the support from the Japanese people, I am leaving the post with one full year left in my term and in the midst of various policies and coronavirus," he said.
Abe said that he would remain in office until his successor is chosen. The LDP will decide next week on how to hold a leadership election, with parliamentarians and representatives of local chapters likely casting ballots, according to local media reports.
Abe, who on Monday surpassed the record for the longest consecutive tenure as Japan's premier set by his great-uncle Eisaku Sato half a century ago, said at the press briefing that he will continue his political career and will run in the next election "as a member of the House of Representatives" in the National Diet – Japan's parliament.
针对日本首相安倍晋三宣布辞去首相职务一事，中国外交部发言人赵立坚28日在例行记者会上表示——
“我们注意到有关报道，这是日本内部事务，我们不作评论。中日两国互为近邻，中方愿与日方一道，继续推动中日关系不断改善发展。”
Support rates fall over COVID-19 responses
除健康状况外，安倍政府近来也忧患不断。受新冠疫情影响，日本经济遭遇重挫，不少民众认为安倍政府应对疫情不力。近来多项民调显示，安倍政府支持率或创安倍2012年执政以来新低。
据日媒报道，自民党已决定9月举行总裁选举。由于自民党和公明党执政联盟在国会掌握绝对优势，新的自民党总裁将接替安倍出任日本新首相。
Under fire for his handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic and scandals among party members, Abe has recently seen his support fall to the lowest levels in his nearly eight years in office.
Japan has not suffered the explosive surge in virus cases seen elsewhere, but Abe has drawn fire for a clumsy early response and what critics see as a lack of leadership as infections spread.
Pedestrians wearing protective masks walk past a statue with a mask on in front of a department store amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Tokyo, Japan, August 18, 2020. /Reuters
In the second quarter, Japan was hit by its biggest economic slump on record as the pandemic emptied shopping malls and crushed demand for cars and other exports, bolstering the case for bolder policy action to avert a deeper recession.
Abe kept his promises to strengthen Japan's defense, boosting spending on the military after years of declines and expanding its capacity to project power abroad.
In a historic shift in 2014, his government re-interpreted the constitution to allow Japanese troops to fight abroad for the first time since World War II.
A year later, Japan adopted laws scrapping a ban on exercising the right of collective self-defense or defending a friendly country under attack.
But Abe proved unable to revise the U.S.-drafted, post-war constitution's pacifist Article 9, a personal mission that also eluded his grandfather, Kishi Nobusuke, who quit as premier in 1960 because of the uproar over a U.S-Japan security pact.
