Interactive timeline: Shinzo Abe’s ratings

Shinzo Abe, who at 52 became the youngest postwar Japanese prime minister in September 2006, took office with the economy in its fifth year of recovery and his cabinet’s public approval rating above 70 per cent.

His first month was dominated by a spectacular diplomatic success when he helped engineer a badly needed rapprochement with China. But his honeymoon with the public ended shortly after that. A series of gaffes or scandals involving his cabinet members or senior advisors sank his approval rating to below 30 per cent and contributed to the ruling party’s devastating defeat in July’s upper house election.

Mr Abe stayed on as prime minister after winning approval from the ruling coalition. His subsequent appointment of several party veterans to a new cabinet led to a sharp rebound in his approval rating.

But on 12 September he announced his intention to resign as prime minister, saying a lack of public trust had made the passage of an anti-terror law impossible.

View an interactive timeline charting important moments in Mr Abe’s turbulent 11 months in office.