Posted on 07/09/2022 4:08:00 AM PDT by FarCenter
TOKYO -- The assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will drastically transform Japan's policy priorities on both the domestic and foreign fronts as the country lost a giant who was able to shift the political landscape from behind the scenes.
Japan's longest-serving prime minister left an indelible mark on the country's political agenda over the past 10 years. After Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party won back control of government in 2012, he immediately set out to reshape Japan's economic policy. He entered into an accord with the Bank of Japan in 2013, setting a 2% inflation target.
There were no sacred cows in Abe's administration. Also in 2013, the National Security Council was created under direct control of the prime minister. The following year, Abe's cabinet issued a decision reinterpreting the constitution as partially allowing collective self-defense.
In each of these cases, Abe's government shifted away from Japan's traditional monetary, fiscal and national security policies. His political legacy has formed the cornerstone of policy agendas that lasted into the administrations of his successors, Yoshihide Suga and Fumio Kishida.
Although Abe resigned as prime minister in September 2020 due to ill health, he continued to strongly advocate for his policy priorities. Bureaucrats from the central ministries frequently visited the kingmaker's private offices after his resignation.
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Due to Abe's advocacy, the fiscal and economic policy guidelines issued by Kishida's cabinet last month do not contain yearly targets regarding the primary balance. Abe had been the leading voice for roughly doubling defense spending over the next five years, a goal also embraced in the current economic blueprint.
Abe's clout came from his position as leader of the largest LDP faction. Because Kishida headed the fourth-largest faction, he would face gridlock within the party if he ignored Abe.
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Link goes to “how to set up your Verizon account” - not to the story
It would be interesting to hear what the Butchers of Beijing and Rocket Boy think of this.
Probably not a goal shared by the folks across the way.
Abe remembered in China as controversial figure who ‘ruined own contribution to bilateral ties’
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While for the Chinese public, Abe was a controversial political figure - he had improved Japan’s relations with China, which is marked by two icebreaking trips during his second term in 2013 and 2018, yet his remarks and actions, including frequent visits to the notorious Yasukuni Shrine and denial of Japan’s invasion history, led to his bad reputation among Chinese public.
The first icebreaking visit was made after Japan’s ludicrous territorial claim over the Diaoyu Islands which dragged bilateral relations to abyss. His second icebreaking visit to China was in October 2018, when he attended events marking the 40th anniversary of the signing of the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship and a forum promoting infrastructure cooperation between companies of the two countries. In 2017, Abe publicly expressed willingness to cooperate with China on the Belt and Road Initiative and said he would not rule out joining the China-headquartered Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
However, on December 2021, Abe, who had already left the post of prime minister, falsely claimed that “a Taiwan emergency is a Japanese emergency,” a serious violation and provocation against the one-China principle, not to mention his frequent visits and tributes to the Yasukuni Shrine.
Those wrong words and deeds after Abe stepped down almost completely overturned the achievements he once made in underpinning China-Japan ties.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202207/1270082.shtml
“Link goes to “how to set up your Verizon account” - not to the story”
Sorry. Here’s the correct link.
Abe was telling the world that in essence, China can never be a Japanese friend.
Nothing can erase the massacre at Nanking but the coming massacre at Taipei must be prevented.
Further, what the Chinese people want and believe is actually irrelevant. They have no say at all in the matter
This is the way Communists take care of dissident speach.
This is the way Communists take care of dissident speach.
**************
True
True but what do we know about the assassin?
What will we ever know about him?
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