Shortly after going down in history as the longest continuously serving Japanese Prime Minister, Abe Shinzo decided to devote his energies to the battle against a chronic disease –ulcerative colitis− and resign from the helm of the ship of state. Abe will wait for members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to vote in a new president who will overtake the premiership and confront a long-sought realignment among the leading opposition parties, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Democratic Party of the People. These parties are set to merge in the coming weeks and possibly include, at a later stage, the Social Democratic Party and the independents who hailed from the defunct Democratic Party of Japan.