Living in a rudderless Japan

From CNN.  With the LDP elections to choose their new leader completed, Abe has stepped down as PM to make way for PM Fukuda.  While I'm sure (I'd like to be sure) that there were contingency plans in place, I find it scary to think that the LDP left the country without a leader for almost two weeks.  Moves like this make people want the LDP less, not more.  Of course everytime Ozawa opens his mouth, it seems I want the DPJ less, not more.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Cabinet resigned Tuesday, clearing the way for new ruling party leader Yasuo Fukuda to be named by parliament as his successor later in the day.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe leaves the podium after announcing his resignation on September 12.

Fukuda, 71, was elected president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Sunday, assuring his selection as prime minister on Tuesday because of the LDP's vast majority in the lower house, the stronger of the two chambers.

Abe, who stunned the nation when he announced on September 12 that he wanted to quit, emerged Tuesday from the hospital where he was being treated for stress-related stomach ailments to officially dissolve his Cabinet.