It is never a good sign for a world leader when golfing becomes an object of scandal.

As Barack Obama faces criticism in the US for playing while racial protests roil Ferguson, Missouri, and Islamist fanatics revel in the beheading of an American journalist in Syria, Shinzo Abe, his Japanese counterpart, is also under fire for golfing during a crisis.

In Mr Abe’s case, the charge is that he went ahead with a game after receiving reports of landslides in Hiroshima prefecture that have killed more than 50 people amid a torrential spate of rain. Yet like the attacks on Mr Obama, the criticism – opposition parties have called for a parliamentary inquiry – feels like a symptom of deeper vulnerabilities: the once untouchably popular architect of “Abenomics” is having a humbling summer.