Such is the contrast between Shinzo Abe’s lacklustre first term as prime minister and his supercharged, hyperactive performance this time round that the Japanese have taken to calling him “Abe 2.0”. Since he made his political comeback almost two years ago, Mr Abe has been on a mission to erase all memory of his first, miserable 12-month stint, which ended in 2007. His determination to make amends has lent his premiership an almost born-again zeal, which supporters find invigorating and opponents frightening.

Economically, he has launched the most ambitious plan to revive the economy since it fell into stagnation two decades ago. Diplomatically, he has been more active than any prime minister since Yasuhiro Nakasone in the 1980s, tramping around the region and the world. On defence, he has made the most concerted effort in decades to unshackle Japan from constitutional restraint and restore its position as a “normal nation” with a normal military.

The past two weeks have been frantic even by Mr Abe’s standards. First, Haruhiko Kuroda, Mr Abe’s radical appointee as central bank governor, wrongfooted markets by launching another round of massive monetary easing in the very week that the US Federal Reserve was going the other way. Just as the Bank of Japan said it was going to buy more government bonds, Japan’s vast Government Pension Investment Fund said it would more than double its allocation to domestic equities. The co-ordinated policies had an immediate impact. Japanese equities have risen 7 per cent and the yen fallen more than 5 per cent to Y115 against the dollar. Bond markets, in defiance of the Cassandras, have remained stable.