(Bloomberg) -- Shinzo Abe's premiership once seemed to be in cruise control. Now, Japan's prime minister is rethinking his agenda after his worst defeat since coming to power almost five years ago.
Abe's Liberal Democratic Party was humiliated in yesterday's Tokyo's assembly elections by a new populist insurgency led by city Governor Yuriko Koike. To make matters worse, she only defected from Abe's LDP last month.
The prime minister's popularity was already sliding, hit by a spate of scandals involving himself and his government. The Tokyo outcome could see him reappraise his program, particularly a plan for controversial revisions to the country's pacifist constitution. He may also need to open the fiscal taps and shelve an unpopular sales-tax hike.
Before, Abe was on track to become Japan's longest-serving post-war premier. Now, his opponents control Tokyo and rivals may well decide to contest him for the party's leadership before national elections due by the end of 2018.
Much more bad news and Abe's dream of presiding over Tokyo's Olympic Games in 2020 could be in tatters.
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Global Headlines
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And finally... It's not just Trump who disregards traditional political optics. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was photographed catching some holiday-weekend rays with his family yesterday -- despite the fact that the beach was closed to the public because of a state government shutdown he ordered. According to NJ.com, Christie and his team shrugged off the controversy. "He did not get any sun," spokesman Brian Murray was quoted as saying. "He had a baseball hat on."
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Winfrey at mwinfrey@bloomberg.net, Caroline Alexander
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