He blinked back tears, and his voice wavered. Unable to parry reporters' queries, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe let drawn-out pauses speak more loudly than his choked words. For a man who had staked his reputation on being the tough guy who would transform his homeland into a self-confident nation with a military worthy of its economic might, the end had come with a whimper. But even stranger was the reason Abe gave during a Sept. 12 speech announcing his intent to step down as Japan's leader. In his tumultuous yearlong tenure, Abe weathered a stunning parliamentary defeat for his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) coalition, the resignations of four of his Cabinet members, the suicide of his corruption-tainted Agriculture Minister and a scandal over the mishandling of more than 50 million pension-fund accounts. None of these crises, Abe maintained, directly prompted his plans to depart once the LDP chooses a new PM next week. Instead, A