[The Financial Times] Mongolian Holiday

Shinzo Abe is not the only powerful man in Japan to flee his position. Asashoryu, Japan’s most famous sumo wrestler, this month rushed home to his native Mongolia after being accused of bringing the sport into disrepute.

Asashoryu angered Japanese people by declining to take part in off-season sumo activities on the grounds that he was injured. Yet the injuries did not prevent him from playing football, apparently.

Footage of him playing were relayed around a shocked Japan, which treated him as a horrifying spectacle on a par with bank robbery of kitten strangling.

The giant man reacted by retreating into silence, locking himself in his house for days, before boarding a flight back to Mongolia for psychological treatment.

Abe was not filmed playing football or robbing a bank, though like Asashoryu he is said to be suffering from psychological strain. Nor has Abe yet fled to Mongolia, although yesterday he did check into a hospital and cancelled all meetings.

If his party, incensed at his sudden resignation, cannot forgive him, Abe might consider a future in Ulan Bator.