Tobias Harris is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, an independent, nonpartisan policy institute. He is the author of "The Iconoclast: Shinzo Abe and the New Japan."
But contest also reveals limits of longest-serving premier's influence

Shinzo Abe waves to staff members as they applaud to bid him goodbye at his official residence in September 2020: Abe left his successors a toolbox but not a road map. © Reuters
Tobias Harris is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, an independent, nonpartisan policy institute. He is the author of "The Iconoclast: Shinzo Abe and the New Japan."