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Close aide to the PM says it was a regular check-up and he is 'not at all' worried about Abe's health

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe underwent a medical check-up in hospital on Monday amid concern voiced by a top official that he was suffering from fatigue from handling the coronavirus pandemic.
Abe, Japan's longest-serving prime minister, left hospital after the examination, Jiji news agency reported.

Health Minister Katsunobu Kato, a close aide to the prime minister, said he understood it was a regular check-up and he was "not at all" worried about Abe's health.

"All I know is from media reports. And I understand it was reported as a regular check-up," Kato told reporters.

Abe gets a regular check-up twice a year, with his most recent on June 13, Kyodo news agency said, adding Monday's visit was a follow-up to the June check-up, citing a hospital source.

Abe's office did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.
News of Abe's health comes as the country reported its sharpest economic decline because of the coronavirus pandemic. The news follows weekend comments by Akira Amari, chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's tax panel, that Abe, 65, could be suffering from fatigue because of his continuous work over the response to the virus.

"I want him to take a break," Amari told a Fuji TV news programme on Sunday. "He has a strong sense of responsibility and feels it's wrong to take a break."

Abe, in office since 2012 in his second stint as prime minister, resigned from his first stint in 2007 because of struggles with ulcerative colitis, which he now keeps under control with medication that was not previously available.

Japanese media have speculated about Abe's health this month, including detailed reports on how fast he was walking. Weekly magazine Flash said Abe had vomited blood at his office on July 6. Reuters was unable to verify the report.

"I see the prime minister every day, and I think he has no [health] problems at all, as he has been carrying out his duties smoothly," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told an August 5 news conference in response to questions following the report.

Abe has discharged his regular duties in recent weeks and was last seen in public on Saturday, at a Tokyo ceremony commemorating Japan's World War II defeat.

While there are no reports that he is unable to perform his duties, should that be the case, Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso, who doubles as finance minister, would take over.