"ESK: No Paul, Mori was forced out (fear that the party would do disastrously in the next HOC election), and Abe was under great pressure to resign from the party until he finally fell on his own sword and checked himself into a hospital and resigned."

PM: Sorry, I am nit-picker when it comes to wording:
I can easily agree Mori for example was pressured and persuaded to resign, but I would not call that being "forced out." I would contrast that with the attempt by Katoh Koichi and others to force him out with a non-confidence motion in November 2000. I don't think there is a non-public way to force out a PM short of a conspiracy, which I know Ellis does not believe in any more than I do. That said, I am not sure how much persuading Mori needed. What ever else we can say about him as a public speaker or his knowledge of policy, he has good political instincts and undoubtedly knew as well as Nonaka that the PM's popularity does matter, and that he had to resign before the HOC election. As for Abe, his non-publicly discussed chronic illness flared up again after the HOC election, impairing his ability to continue in office, at least in the short-run.

Best,

Paul Midford