Last year, when he was 70 years old, Yasuo Fukuda was considered too old to become prime minister of Japan. Now, at 71, he is just the right age for the job.

Shinzo Abe, at 52 the first Japanese prime minister born since the war, symbolised a generational shift and a break with what he called “the post-war regime”. But after his shambolic and scandal-strewn premiership, epitomised by the extraordinary manner of his leaving it, the ruling Liberal Democratic party is desperate to swap the incompetence of youth for gravitas.