Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving prime minister of Japan, was shot on Friday. He was 67. — Image from the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman’s Flickr account under CC BY 2.0
TOKYO — Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, who used his audacious “Abenomics” policies to bolster the military, combat China’s rising influence, and lift the economy out of chronic deflation, passed away at age 67.
In an attack that his protégé and current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called “absolutely unforgivable,” Abe, who left office in 2020, was shot and killed on Friday while making an election campaign speech.
The lawmaker first assumed the position of premier in 2006, serving for only a year before resuming in 2012 for a rare second term with the promises to revive a stagnant economy, relax restrictions imposed by a pacifist constitution written after World War Two, and reinstate traditional values.
He played a key role in Tokyo’s victory in the 2020 Olympics, had a dream of hosting the Games, and even made an appearance as Mario from the 2016 host city Rio during the Olympic handover.
In November 2019, Abe became the longest-serving premier in Japan. By summer 2020, however, his popularity had declined due to the way he handled the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak and a string of scandals, including the arrest of his former justice minister.
In spite of having long-held ambitions to change the constitution and preside over the Games—which had been postponed to 2021 because of the pandemic—he announced his resignation in September of that year.
He nonetheless maintained a stronghold over the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), in charge of one of its main factions. Two days later, he was killed while running in an Upper House election.
ABENOMICS
As Japan’s youngest prime minister since World War Two, Abe first assumed office in 2006. Following a year marred by political scandals, voter outrage over misplaced pension records, and a crushing defeat for his ruling party in the elections, Abe resigned, citing poor health.
Abe later penned in the magazine Bungei Shunju, “What worries me most now is that the conservative ideals that the Abe administration raised will fade because of my resignation.
I’m willing to make sacrifices going forward as a single legislator in order to see genuine conservatism emerge in Japan.
Abe led his conservative LDP, which was ousted in 2009, back to power five years after his resignation, which he blamed on the gastrointestinal condition ulcerative colitis.
After that, he introduced the “Abenomics” program, a three-pronged strategy that included fiscal spending, hyper-easy monetary policy, and structural reform to address the rapidly aging and declining population.
But deflation remained obstinate, and in 2019 a sales tax increase and a Sino-US trade war hurt his growth strategy. The following year, the COVID-19 pandemic started Japan’s worst-ever economic downturn.
Abe took the time to implement a state of emergency ordering people to stay at home and closing businesses as soon as the pandemic started in Japan. Initial criticism of the response was that it was awkward, and later accusations of Abe’s lack of leadership.
Japan’s COVID-19 death rate was much lower than that of many other developed countries when he announced his resignation, citing the same intestinal condition.
DYNASTY
Abe came from a powerful political family that included a father who served as foreign minister and a great-uncle who was the premier. But his late grandfather, Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, seems to have had the most influence on many policies.
After World War Two, Kishi, a wartime cabinet minister, was imprisoned but never tried for war crimes. From 1957 to 1960, he was prime minister. He left office in the wake of a public uproar over a revised US-Japan security agreement.
When he was five years old, Abe is reputed to have played on his grandfather’s lap while hearing the sound of clashes between police and leftist crowds protesting the pact outside parliament.
Kishi attempted in vain to change the 1947 US-drafted constitution of Japan to make it an equal security partner with the US and adopt a more assertive diplomacy—aspects crucial to Abe’s own agenda.
To counter a more assertive China, Abe increased defense spending and forged alliances with other Asian countries. He pushed for laws that would allow Japan to defend itself militarily in the name of “collective self-defense.”
Abe’s top priority continued to be the revision of the pacifist constitution, which is a contentious objective given that many Japanese attribute Japan’s post-war peace record to the charter.
The main goal of Abe’s campaign was to get Japan out of what he called the “post-war regime,” a legacy of US occupation, which conservatives claim robbed Japan of its sense of national pride. Another of his objectives was to change the educational system to bring back conventional mores.
He also took a less contrite stance toward Japan’s actions during World War Two, arguing that subsequent generations shouldn’t continually be made to apologize for the past.
FIRM STANCE
After his father’s passing, Abe was first elected to parliament in 1993. In a dispute involving Japanese nationals who had been abducted by Pyongyang decades earlier, Abe gained national notoriety by taking a tough stance toward the unreliable neighbor North Korea.
Abe enraged both neighbors in 2013 by visiting Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, which Beijing and Seoul regard as a reminder of Japan’s historical militarism, despite the fact that he also sought to strengthen ties with China and South Korea, where bitter wartime memories run deep.
He sent ritual offerings rather than making in-person visits in later years.
Abe developed close ties with US President Donald Trump across the Pacific, playing golf with him and speaking with him frequently over the phone and in person.
After a party rule change, he was re-elected as LDP president for a third consecutive three-year term in 2018. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, some in the LDP had discussed another rule change to allow him to serve a fourth term. The Reuters
