‘The Economist December 22nd 2012 » party's secretary-general It may be a sign of tolerance for those outside his clique. Hanging over Mr Abe are two ques tions. One has to do with the physical and mental strength of the 58-year-old, Mr Abe stepped down in 2007 under immense strains. He says he is now taking proper medication for his longstanding bowel disorder, which is affected by stress. The other question is Mr Abe's nation: Kazakhstan's press Aheavy hand Abad yearformedia freedoms TSITORS to Astana, Kazakhstan's glitzy new capital, canzoom 97me- {res (8 feet) up a purpose-built tower and, insidea giant golden eggatitsapex, placeahandin the palm printof the president, Nursultan Nazarbayev. When. they do,the national anthem plays. ‘Thepresidential hand hasbeen heavy of late,leaving a firm mark on Kazakh stan's opposition and itsindependent media, The crackdown begana year ago. ‘On Decembers6th 201, the country’s independence day,police fred on prot- esters in the western oil own of 2hanao- zen, Killing atleastas Inthe year since then, secret police have rounded up activists, ncludingsome with only ten- uous links fo the strike protests. Courts haveignored claims of torturein custody. More than a dozenhavebeenjailed, including Vladimir Kozlov, anopposition figure sentenced in Octobertoseven- and-a-hal€ yearsinpprison forallegedly aitempting to overthrow the government by encouraging thestrikers. Freedom House, watchdog, said prosecutors presented no evidence tojustify his conviction. The American embassy,ina rarecrticism ofits oil-rich ally lamented the “apparentuse of thejudicial system alism and his tendency to gloss over or even deny the worst of Japan's wartime misdeeds. Ata time of heightened tensions over territorial disputes, he has it in his power to undermine Japan's stan ‘with China and South Korea, while putting off ordinary Japanese at home. ‘Tomohiko Taniguchi, a former foreign ministry official now at Keio Universi says Mr Abe will seek to strengthen rel tosilencea leading opposition voi ‘MrNazarbayev's sights have since shifted oindependentmedia, In Decem- ber courts ordered twortelevision stations tocloseand began proceedingsagainst twonewspapersfor “inciting soci discord’. Allfour had reported critically onthe violence. Human Rights Watch,an American NGO, hascalled the campaign “ablatantattemptby thegovernmentio. ‘muzzle critical voices”. Five police off- cers were imprisoned fortheirrole in the Zhanaozen shootings. The regional go- ‘vernor wasalsofired, butlatermade Mr Nazarbayev'sadviser. ‘Mr Nazarbayev, whois 72,hasruled Kazakhstan since before itsindepen dence from the Soviet Union. Hehas never broken free fom hisauthoritarian tootsand has nurtured personality cult (earlier this month, a national holiday in hishonour wasintroduced), Buthehad atleast tolerated some press criticism. ‘Most ofthe rest ofthe world now ap- pears determined not tonoticethat ‘anything is changing. Lastmonth Kar- akhstan was forthe firsttime electedio siton the ux Human Rights Council I won support from all butien of the u's asmembers. | Asia 57 tions with America, after arocky patch un der the pr). Closerrelations with Asian de mocracies, including Australia and India, will follow. But although improving ties with China and South Korea will bea low- er priority, Mr Taniguchi says, Mr Abe has learned from the “painful failure” of his earlier term in office, when all his talk about “patriotism” and “righteousness” carried litle weight with voters. He has not said whether he wants to take Japan into the Trans-Pacific Pariner- ship (rp), an American-led free-trade ‘grouping, The Keidanten is strongly for it Farmers and othertpp backers are against Mr Abe seems privately to bein favour. Whether or not Japan's neighbours let him brush off tensions with them over ter ritories and history may depend on their new leaders. The atitude of China's Com- ‘miunist Party chief, Xi Jinping, is unclear: pragmatism may trump dislike for Mr ‘Abe's views. As The Economist went to press, South Korea was electing anew pres- ident. Mr Abe, whois the grandson ofa for ‘mer prime minister once accused of war crimes, has refused to say whether or not he will visit Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine, which honours convicted war criminals among Japan’s war dead. If he does go, he can expecta backlash from neighbours. should Mr Aberefrain and set about re viving the economy instead, however, it would do wonders for Japan's standing abroad. It would also be an unexpected thank you to the voters who cheerlessly ppuithim into office this week. m Servants in India Can’t get the help Cheap household abourisno longerin abundantsupply MRITA SABNAVIS, a busy financier ‘with two BlackBerrys, an equally hee- tic husband and a six-year-old daughter, refers to one of her former maids as “a nightmare”. Ms Sabnavis says the hired help was always on the phone, frequently late when collecting her daughter, and tried to discourage her second maid from doing any work. The servant then went on holiday in May and never came back. Ms ‘Sabnavishas been through live-in maids in three years in Mumbai, India's financial capital. Finding replacements only seems tobe getting harde India, like Britain and America until a century ago, has an established culture of livein servants, Profe ilies often have a “mai migrant woman, who does everything fiom dusting to child care. Wealthier »