Few other Japanese living memory leaders have left such a deep imprint on their country as Shinzo Abe. One of the most transformative politicians of the postwar period, he was shot dead at the age of 67 while delivering a campaign speech in the western city of Nara before the upper house elections.
When he left the post of prime minister in 2007 after just one year, most people assumed he would fade into a career without distinction in later banks. However, just over a decade later, he had become Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, with a series of major political reforms in his name and even his own world-renowned brand of economic stimulus. Abenomics.
In 2012, when Abe regained the helm of the state in a dazzling election, the Japanese economy, once the second largest in the world, had remained flat for two decades. Although many had tried, none had managed to wake him from the stalemate. Faced with difficult forecasts, Abe adopted a three-pronged approach to drastically increase money supply, increase government spending and push for structural reform.
His combination of “Abenomics” was to give a massive shock that sought to raise inflation to 2%, stimulate consumer spending and revitalize the “animal spirits” of the Japanese capitalist class. The bold neoliberal movement woke up a dying stock market and generated substantial profits for Japan’s large exporting companies. Excitement for change and an open future propelled Abe to the world spotlight as he declared, “Japan is back.”
Shinzo Abe and President Barack Obama in Tokyo in 2014. Abe was keen to maintain stability in foreign affairs and the alliance between Japan and the US. Photography: Carolyn Kaster / AP
Abe pushed for more reforms, many exposing his arch-conservative leanings, which had changed little since his first term as prime minister. However, supported by the Abenomics wind, he was able to see through the political goals that were hampered before. Its State Secrets Act turned many activities into illegal allegations and subject to harsh punishments. Against widespread public protest, he expanded military spending and reinterpreted the constitution to allow Japan’s self-defense forces to help allies under attack. Controversially, it restarted nuclear power, which had been dormant since the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
Faced with a declining population, Abe deployed programs to raise marriage and fertility rates, making significant expansions to child care, under the war’s maternalistic slogan of “give birth, increase”. [the population]! ” Female employment expanded, but mainly in temporary jobs, while reducing the promotion goals of women in business leadership positions from 30% to just 5%.
However, Abenomics never fully fulfilled the economic recovery it promised. Weak monetary policy caused public debt to rise to close to 240% of GDP under its supervision. Instead of a revival of spending, average family incomes declined as profits were not redistributed and consumers were affected by controversial sales tax increases. The inflation rate, the engine of the reform, never reached 2% and, in fact, in 2020 it was negative. The late capitalist trio of debt, deflation and depopulation continued to pursue him.
However, by mid-2020, Abe was the longest-serving Japanese prime minister, having closed the revolving door in the seat that had occupied 14 people in the previous two decades. What was the secret to your success?
In 2007, he had ended his first one-year term as prime minister in the face of currency scandals and electoral losses. When he was re-elected five years later, the picture had changed. His campaign slogan for an early 2014 election gives the most succinct answer: “There is no other way.”
Opposition parties were in disarray, and Abe’s unconditional Liberal Democratic party could only applaud when its main rival, the Democratic Party of Japan, split in two. There was simply no challenge on the horizon, not even within the LDP. In a clever political movement, Abe blocked the traditional source of alternative views within Japan’s single-party democracy, that is, competition between factions within the LDP.
He neutralized his main rivals by handing them difficult ministerial portfolios and domesticated the formerly independent civil servant by appointing himself to key positions. He also disciplined the media through his chief of staff and successor in office, Yoshihide Suga, known for his bulldog approach to journalists. In this new context, the monetary scandals that continued to haunt Abe during his second term were a mere nuisance rather than a real threat.
Abe’s great successes were in foreign policy, if measured in maintaining stability. As prime minister, he was continually traveling, visiting more countries than any predecessor, as he deployed from Japan’s traditional alliances to reach trade agreements around the world. His strong nationalist inclinations were often, if not always, tempered when dealing with Japan’s closest neighbors, still sensitive to Japan’s imperial aggressions.
He did much to secure the alliance between Japan and the United States even when it was under pressure, especially when the White House adopted increasingly harsh language against its traditional allies. Abe’s diplomatic skills earned him the nickname “Trump’s Whisperer,” as the U.S. backed down from threats of import tariffs and rising tariffs Japan pays to host military bases. Americans. When the United States withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Abe kept the pact alive, becoming the standard bearer of the regional alliance.
However, he was never able to get his hands on his most sought-after trophy: revising the constitution. The amendment had long been part of the LDP platform, but Abe went far beyond his predecessors to push for the amendment of a document that had not been revised since 1947. The core of the discussion was the Article 9, which waives the right to war, but Abe hoped to amend almost every article in the document, often ridiculed as an imposition by the American occupation forces. However, the constitutional revision has long been controversial among an audience that has accepted the peace article as part of national identity.
Thus, Abe took a careful but relentless approach. He lowered the voting age to get young people to join, launched public relations campaigns against some outdated phrase in the document and raised the issue after each election victory. Prudence still prevailed: the revision never went to a vote.
Many predicted that Abe would increase the exaggeration of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics to push for change at last. But once they became the 2021 Olympics, it became clear that the ever-declining goal would remain out of reach. In the summer of 2020, Abe was struggling with criticism of the government’s response to Covid-19, and with the return of ulcerative colitis that had led to his first resignation, in 2007. In September 2020, he left the post to become one of the most influential politicians in later banks, securing the succession of his allies Suga and Fumio Kishida to the prime minister.
Born in Tokyo, Shinzo was the son of Yoko Kishi and Shintaro Abe. After studying public administration at Seikei University and public policy at the University of Southern California, he began working, first in industry and later as an assistant in government. In 1993, he formally entered the family business – politics – when he was elected to the House of Representatives. The seat he occupied for a long time was his father, a career politician and former minister.
His mother’s political pedigree, however, was even more influential. Shinzo’s grandfather’s uncle, Eisaku Satō, was the longest post-war prime minister before Abe overcame him, but more than one inspiration was his maternal grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, who became prime minister after of being rehabilitated from war crimes charges. . Abe’s long struggle to revise the Japanese constitution was often seen as the continuation of a battle that his grandfather defended.
In 1987, Abe married Akie Matsuzaki, an heiress and former radio disc jockey, whose open-mindedness earned her the title of “national opposition party” during her husband’s term as prime minister. Given the relatively smooth step he took from the Diet during his eight years in power, this may have been the main source of political challenge he encountered.
She survives him.
Shinzo Abe, politician, born September 21, 1954; died July 8, 2022