The Art of Losing Well: Shinzo Abe's political comeback
Defeats are inevitable, but becoming a loser is a choice. A leader who treats setbacks as opportunities for growth can turn them into the foundation of future victories.
Losing is not something I'd recommend to anyone. But losing is as much a part of life as winning.
Even if we have a track record where victories outnumber defeats, the human psyche and the way the business of power is set up means that those defeats—and how we handle them—are what will really define us in most cases.
So, because we are going to eventually face defeats, it's important to learn how to lose well, so that defeat does not become permanent. That is something I learned during the failed attempt at independence in Catalonia in 2017, where its leadership, from all the different options they had for losing, chose the worst one—one from which the independence movement may never recover.
There are many who throw away their careers after, for example, a surprisingly good electoral result by a new and young candidate that is just not enough to win an election or secure a seat. Instead of turning what is objectively a difficult achievement into a solid foundation for a future political victory, they can't be patient.
They do not understand that miraculous meteoric victories are called miraculous for a reason. That way they often waste the political capital gained, blaming the electorate for not being smart enough to support them, quitting from the public eye, and allowing the defeat to stop their political activity entirely.
There are, however, also many stories of the opposite, where a charismatic leader knows how to turn a defeat into the foundation of an enduring victory. The one that has captivated me most since I learned about it in Tobias Harris's The Iconoclast is Shinzo Abe's historic comeback in 2012, after his abrupt resignation in 2007—you can follow Harris’ Substack in Observing Japan.
Shinzo Abe first took office as Japan's Prime Minister in September 2006, but just one year into his term he presented his letter of resignation. He had been dealing with an unending list of challenges since he took office.
His administration was simultaneously rocked by political and corruption accusations, including his Agriculture Minister's suicide amid corruption allegations, and a difficult economic situation.
Despite the political scandals, Abe was ultimately defeated by his own body. His ulcerative colitis had deteriorated, especially during a tour he took around Southeast Asia, making carrying on with his duties increasingly difficult.
This might have been what hit him hardest, and what could have demoralized anyone in his position more than anything else. It wasn't some bad decision or an external event of force majeure, but his own physical weakness.
The bad results of the Liberal Democratic Party in the upper house elections that same year delivered the final blow to Abe, severely constraining his ability to govern effectively, which prompted his resignation.
Rather than accepting going down in history as one of the shortest-lived Japanese PMs, Abe approached his setback in the most strategically savvy way possible. He used the time to rebuild his body, his party, educate himself, and keep up the cultural war his opponents in the party didn't want to wage.
Lesson. Defeats are inevitable, but becoming a loser is a choice. A leader who treats setbacks as opportunities for growth can turn them into the foundation of future victories.
Abe first prioritized his health, adopting new medication that successfully managed his condition. That was not only important because without a healthy body he couldn't govern, but also because the leader of a nation cannot be a sick man. Abe understood that a leader is the physical embodiment of a nation, and his health is a reflection of the health of the nation itself.
During his years in the political wilderness, Shinzo Abe methodically rebuilt his support network through a meticulous grassroots approach.
He focused on regaining support from the Liberal Democratic Party's conservative and nationalist factions, which had been disappointed by his first resignation, traveling across Japan to meet regional LDP chapters, business leaders, and right-wing interest groups to reassure them of his commitment to their agenda.
Working closely with younger LDP politicians, he positioned himself as a mentor who could guide Japan through economic and geopolitical challenges. He used his long-standing ties with right-wing intellectuals and media figures who helped promote his ideas to conservative voters, becoming increasingly vocal about historical revisionism and the need for Japan to recover its national pride.
His strategy extended beyond internal party politics to direct engagement with the public, as he traveled extensively to rural and suburban areas where LDP support had weakened under the Democratic Party of Japan government.
Abe held town hall-style meetings, where he listened to local grievances about the struggling economy, security concerns, and dissatisfaction with the then-ruling DPJ. This way Abe built personal connections with voters who had felt abandoned by the political establishment—laying the groundwork for his triumphant return to power in 2012.
Most significantly, Abe used this period to develop "Abenomics," the economic strategy that would define his second administration. He attributed many of the problems of his first administration to his lack of knowledge of economic policy, and he made sure that he wouldn't be facing the same problem again.
He crafted an economic vision combining monetary easing, fiscal stimulus, and structural reforms while refining his positions on national security and constitutional revision. When public opinion turned against the DPJ over economic stagnation and perceived weaknesses on the international front, Abe was ready to offer the alternatives the country needed.
Not only was it important that Abe used his time outside office to rebuild his political figure, but also how he integrated his present and promise of future with his previous failure.
While he acknowledged mistakes and expressed regret for his abrupt departure, he focused primarily on demonstrating growth as a leader rather than on apologizing. He redirected the public's attention from his past mistakes to Japan's future challenges, positioning himself as the only one qualified to address them.
When he secured the LDP leadership again in September 2012 and subsequently won the general election that December, Abe returned not as a politician seeking a second chance but as a transformed leader with clear direction and purpose.
His second term would ultimately span nearly eight years, during which he implemented significant economic reforms and elevated Japan's global diplomatic presence.
Abe's journey teaches us that political defeat—even when compounded by personal health challenges—need not be definitive. His strategic use of time away from power allowed for genuine renewal: physically, intellectually, and politically.
Rather than rushing back prematurely, he ensured his return was supported by a renewed power base, with strengthened policy ideas, political alliances, and improved personal and physical capacity.
Abe's comeback shows that how we respond to setbacks often determines our legacy more than our initial success. By treating his defeat as an opportunity for personal transformation rather than dragging himself down, Abe transformed what could have been a footnote in Japanese political history into a launching pad for one of its most important administrations in decades.
Abe's story reminds us that true resilience is not merely about mere survival, but about strategically extracting lessons from our failures and having the patience to prepare thoroughly for a historic second act.