These should have been celebratory days for Mr Shinzo Abe.
This week, he passed 2,800 continuous days as Japan's prime minister, erasing a record set by his grand uncle, Eisaku Sato. Yet, it has been a while since he went to Yamaguchi prefecture, his bailiwick on the south-west of Japan's main island, or to his vacation home in Yamanashi prefecture, north of Mt Fuji.
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