Naoto Kan is leaving office in the same way he occupied it: with an unshakeable lack of conviction. On Thursday, the Japanese prime minister told members of his Democratic party that he would resign but gave no specific date. He would take his leave, he said, when the earthquake clean-up had reached a “certain stage”.
Investors’ reaction was imperceptible. That was perhaps surprising, given that Mr Kan had a week to go before becoming Japan’s first prime minister in five to last more than a year. Still, it will be hard for the incumbent to point to any evidence that he made the country more “dynamic”, as he had promised.
Over the past 12 months, the Nikkei has not moved, while government bonds have shown a tiny rise. Bank credit is still shrinking; cash balances at Japanese companies have crept ever higher. Consumer prices fell for most of his tenure. The currency, buffeted by forces outside his control, never got close to the Y95 level the former finance minister declared “appropriate”. The only tangible progress has been a slight reduction in the suicide rate – a metric that seemed to matter a lot to Mr Kan during his first press conference.