[Shinzo Abe] Birth, adolescence, marriage, political career, biography of Shinzo Abe

[Shinzo Abe] Birth, adolescence, marriage, political career, biography of Shinzo Abe

[Shinzo Abe] Birth, adolescence, marriage, political career, biography of Shinzo Abe

 

1. Who is Shinzo Abe?

  Shinzo Abe (September 21, 1954 – July 8, 2022) was a Japanese politician. He is a member of the House of Representatives of the Liberal Democratic Party, and he served as the 90th, 96th, 97, and 98th Prime Minister and served as the 21st and 25th President of the Liberal Democratic Party. After graduating from college, he worked as an employee of the Kobe Steel Works, and served as secretary to his father, Shintaro Abe, Minister of Foreign Affairs. He has since served as the 37th Secretary General of the Liberal Democratic Party, the 72nd Chief Cabinet Secretary and the 21st President of the Liberal Democratic Party.

 

  He took office as Prime Minister in 2006, but resigned the following year. After that, he won the general election again in December 2012 and was re-elected as Prime Minister after 5 years and 3 months. After that, he won the general election again in October 2017 and took office as the 98th Prime Minister. He became Prime Minister for the longest term in history.

 

  However, suspicions of an attempt to sell state land to Moritomo Academy in 2017 arose, and the public's approval rating declined due to a scandal about a cherry blossom viewing meeting in November 2019 and a failure to deal with Corona 19 in 2020. At a press conference on August 28 of the same year, he expressed his resignation due to health problems related to ulcerative colitis. And on September 16, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga took office as prime minister and resigned as prime minister.

  After retiring as prime minister, he continued his career in politics, and in 2021 served as president of the Seiwa Policy Study Group, a faction within the Liberal Democratic Party. On July 8, 2022, during a campaign for the House of Representatives election, he was shot by assailant Tetsuya Yamagami (homemade shotgun) and taken to hospital, where he died around 17:03.

 

 

[Shinzo Abe] Birth, adolescence, marriage, political career, biography of Shinzo Abe

 

2. The Life of Shinzo Abe

(1). birth and growth

He was born on September 21, 1954 in Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, the second son of Shintaro Abe, who was then a reporter for the Mainichi Shimbun, and his wife Yoko Abe. His hometown is Yuya-cho, Otsu-gun, Yamaguchi Prefecture (present-day Nagato City). His paternal grandfather Gan Abe was a member of the House of Representatives, his maternal grandfather was Kishi Nobusuke who served as the 56th and 57th Prime Minister of the Cabinet, and his maternal grandfather (real brother of his maternal grandfather Kishi Nobusuke) served as the 61st, 62nd and 63rd Prime Minister of the Cabinet. This is one Sato Ei Saku. Growing up in such a hereditary political family, Abe later recalled that "there was politics close to me from a young age." He said that as a child he dreamed of becoming a baseball player, and he also enjoyed watching TV and thought of becoming a detective.

 

(2). He went from elementary school to high school in the Seikei branch, which Nobusuke Kishi insisted on entering during his school days
, and graduated from Seikei University's Faculty of Law, Department of Political Science. Many of his father, Shintaro Abe, Kan Abe, Nobusuke Kishi, Eisaku Sato, Katsuei Hirasawa, a tutor, and relatives were from the University of Tokyo. .

(3). After graduating as an office worker, he
moved to California, USA to learn English for a while. After returning to Korea in April 1979, he joined the Kobe Steel Works and worked at the New York office, Kakogawa Steel Works, and Tokyo headquarters. Among them, about his experience at the Kakogawa Steel Works, Abe recalled that it was “the starting point of my social life” and “my starting point”.

 

 

(4). Introduction to politics

  He is the first postwar prime minister, the youngest postwar prime minister, and the longest-serving Japanese prime minister in history. He is also the last prime minister of the Heisei era and the first prime minister of the Reiwa era. He became the first Prime Minister in 2006 when he succeeded Junichiro Koizumi (1st Abe Cabinet). However, due to his excessively quick [10] [11] political success, he exposed various problems and lost his authority and health problems overlapped.

  However, subsequent prime ministers from the LDP [13] also gave power to the Democratic Party in the 45th Japanese House of Representatives general election in 2009 with a term of less than one year, and the prime ministers of the Democratic Party [14] also led a short-lived cabinet for the first time in three years. Approval ratings plummeted. In the end, he succeeded in changing the government by winning the 46th general election for the Japanese House of Representatives in December 2012, and returned to the post of prime minister and succeeded in a political revival (2nd Abe cabinet). Two years later, in the 47th Japanese House of Representatives General Election in 2014 and five years later in the 48th Japanese House of Representatives General Election in 2019, the government extended the government by retaining an overwhelming majority of seats (3rd and 4th Abe Cabinet).

  Abe left a big presence in his second term as prime minister for nearly eight years. From a political perspective, he stabilized the Japanese cabinet system, which had been unstable enough to be called a revolving door prime minister for about seven years after the end of Junichiro Koizumi's term, based on his strong support.[15][16] In the economic aspect, it succeeded in revitalizing Japan's economy to a significant extent by implementing a strong quantitative easing policy called Abenomics based on a solid power base.

  From a diplomatic point of view, Abe was recognized by the United States as a very important helper to contain anti-Western forces such as China, Russia, and North Korea. It can be said that this background is the reason that Abenomics and the Abe Doctrine were passed without much noise in the international community. On the other hand, in Korea and China, he is also a critic of Shinzo Abe's wrong view of history as the cause of the deterioration of relations with Japan. In 2013, he even forced a visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, where Class A war criminals who had led the Pacific War in the past were enshrined. After that, he continued to make tribute to the Yasukuni Shrine, causing protests from neighboring countries. For reference, Abe was a member of the Japan Conference, the largest far-right group in Japan.

  On the military side, he was also a figure pushing Japan's rearmament and armaments. China, a party to the new Cold War structure, naturally insists that this is an action that exacerbates military tensions in East Asia, and South Korea is also adding to criticism as a symptom of a harbinger of the revival of the Japanese militaristic specter. It is being carried out in response to the 'requests' of the G7 Western countries and the 'requests' of the right-wing forces in Japan. Moreover, if we compare the annual GDP, tax revenue, and budget that have increased as Japan's economy has improved, Japan, which still spends 1% of its military spending, although it is increasing every year, is on the contrary to Korea (2.6% of GDP) or China (2.0% of GDP). It can be seen that the figures are kept in good condition when compared.

  In August 2020, he resigned as prime minister for the first time in eight years due to chronic illness, which was the same reason as his first resignation, but he still exerted his power as the leader of the party's largest faction, the Seiwa Policy Research Council, and as the leader of the party, and succeeded Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Ki He was also deeply involved in making Fumio Shida Prime Minister.

  After the 49th general election in 2021, he sent Hiroyuki Hosoda, the existing faction chairman, to the House of Representatives, and took office himself to show off his political influence. It was the first time in 9 years and 7 months from December 2012, when he succeeded in re-election and formed a second cabinet. This made him the 7th person to be assassinated among Japanese Prime Ministers. He is also the former and current Prime Minister who was assassinated by a civilian by a gun, the first in 92 years since Osachi Hamaguchi in 1930.

 

[Shinzo Abe] Birth, adolescence, marriage, political career, biography of Shinzo Abe

 

 

3. Death of Shinzo Abe

  At 11:32 a.m. on July 8, 2022, while giving a campaign speech to support Kei Sato, a member of the House of Representatives candidate, in Yamato-Saidai area, Nara City, Nara City, for the 26th general election of the House of Representatives in Japan, a former self-defense officer of the Maritime Self-Defense Force. He was attacked by a known 41-year-old man Tetsuya Yamagami and was promptly taken to the hospital, but died at 5:03 pm, 5 hours and 30 minutes after the attack, at the age of 67.

  The medical staff at Nara Prefectural University Hospital, who performed the operation, said that Shinzo Abe was already in cardiopulmonary arrest when he was taken to the hospital, and that "there were two gunshot wounds about 5 cm away from the neck, and the scars reached the heart." Her wife, Akie Abe, arrived at the hospital around 4:57 p.m., but only six minutes later, at 5:03 p.m., she was pronounced dead. Abe's body was temporarily placed in the hospital, and the next day, around 6 am on July 9, it was loaded into a hearse and transported to his home in Shibuya, Tokyo. His funeral was held three days later, on July 12, as a family funeral home at Joe George, a temple in Tokyo.

  The funeral will be held at a family funeral home, and detailed funeral discussions will take place after the counting of the House of Councilors election on July 10. It is known that there was originally a discussion to proceed as the director, but in this case, it seems to have been canceled because the election schedule had to be postponed. After his death, the Japanese government honored the highest-ranking decorations, the Grand Meritorious Order Chrysanthemum Janggyeongsik and the Grand Meritorious Order Chrysanthemum at the same time.

 

 

[Shinzo Abe] Birth, adolescence, marriage, political career, biography of Shinzo Abe

 

4. Shinzo Abe’s Political Career

(1). economic policy

 

1). Abenomics

  Unlimited quantitative easing, government spending, and structural reform are the so-called three arrows as policy pillars. Simultaneously with Abe's inauguration, he sought the understanding of the G7 countries and began to implement it, resulting in considerable results, but pessimism is also strong. The goal of quantitative easing and government spending is to have a trickle-down effect on companies and restore consumer sentiment. Structural reform promotes the labor of women and the elderly under the banner of 'a 100 million active society', promotes privatization of key industries and flexibility in the employment market, reforms corporate regulations to make Japan more vibrant, and easing immigration into the 1990s This is to overcome Japan's troublesome problems such as the low birth rate and aging population.

2). Nikkei Index During Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's presidency
  Japan's Nikkei Index surged more than 3-4% a day as Abe Shinzo pushed Abenomics in earnest, breaking through the 15,000 mark in five years and four months. Since 2015, it has stabilized near the 18,000 line, and from the second half of 2016 to the middle of 2017, the economy has improved a lot as it fluctuates between the late 19000s and 20000s, and the yen/dollar exchange rate is also quite stable at 111 yen. On February 14, 2021, it broke the 30,000 mark for the first time in 30 years since the bubble burst.

  Monetary policy was not studied as a policy to fundamentally improve the national economic structure even in the 1980s, when research was most active. To be more precise, while the Reagan administration in the United States promised massive tax cuts and government subsidies for technology development as a stimulus package, it was criticized for taking too much time for capital to appear on its own with these tax policies (Timing Problem). Monetary policy emerged as a short-term measure.

  In addition, as part of a policy that simultaneously pursues economic and pro-Western movements, Japan initially weighed whether to participate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a multilateral FTA, recommended by the United States. However, at that time, the cabinet was a Democratic Party and there was a lot of opposition from the rural-based LDP as there were concerns about the damage to the farms, so it was passive, but Abe actively promoted the TPP based on his high popularity. In April 2013, the TPP participating countries were approved for negotiation # and the US formally notified Japan's participation in the TPP negotiation to its National Assembly. With this, Japan, which had been evaluated as lagging behind Korea's FTA (especially the Korea-US FTA), seized an opportunity for a reversal.

  When the TPP is completed, Japan's gross domestic product will increase by 0.66% (3.2 trillion yen), and among the TPP participating countries, the US and Japan alone account for 90% of the economy, so there was an expectation that it would take another leap forward as a leader in the Pacific Rim economy. However, even this figure is a conservative prediction, and Peter Petri, a professor at Brandeis University in the US, said in an interview with the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, "Japan's participation in TPPA will increase Japanese economic productivity," adding that the GDP is about 10 trillion yen (about 98 trillion won). It was estimated that there would be an effect of increasing it, which is more than three times the Japanese government's forecast of 3.2 trillion yen. In addition, it is possible to aim for the secondary effect of meeting global standards at once by participating in the TPP in the market and regulations that have become the Galapagos of Japan.

  But that was the rosy blueprint until Donald Trump, who pulled the United States out of the TPP. Trump is negative about multilateral trade agreements as well as all foreign agreements negotiated by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and the TPP was an inevitable result. As soon as Abe heard the news of Trump's election, he ran to the Trump Tower in New York with a golden golf club, and tried his best to protect the TPP, but failed to change Trump's heart. In any case, Japan pushed ahead with the TPP-11 as it opened up additional markets to keep China in check and secure overseas markets, but Japan became the largest market among the participating countries. In other words, Japan has not been able to enjoy the effect of an FTA with the United States and has been put in a situation where it can only see a trade deficit from 10 other countries. Even if the US returns to the TPP in the future, it seems difficult to reproduce the hopeful prospects above.

In particular, there are predictions that Abenomics will not end well. Because this kind of unlimited quantitative easing will one day lead to higher long-term interest rates. In particular, the current Japanese economy is structurally vulnerable to rising interest rates on government bonds. Since the government bond itself has already exceeded twice the GDP for a long time, an exit strategy is not appropriate. This raises the possibility that Japan will not be able to get out of negative interest rates.

Although a bill to increase the consumption tax during Abe's tenure was passed by lawmakers from the ruling party during the Democratic administration, raising the consumption tax under Abe's cabinet is also controversial. because it causes Abe's 2nd cabinet also raised the consumption tax to 8%, which had a side effect of offsetting the effect of Abenomics, delaying the schedule for two additional hikes. Abenomics, which had a good start in 2013 with a growth rate of 2%, has lost considerable momentum as it forced a consumption tax increase to 8%. In 2013, there was a dream-like observation that Japan could grow 3% soon, but after the consumption tax hike, the growth rate fell again and it literally ended as a dream.

  In fact, despite these problems, the reason why the consumption tax has to be raised is because Japan's high fiscal spending and questions about the sovereignty of the country have been raised in earnest, which could lead to an increase in government bond yields. The more urgent reason, of course, is to prevent severe fiscal deficits and national debt. Most of the reaction of Japanese civil society to this is skepticism about the relationship between raising the consumption tax and paying off debt. This is because debt has quadrupled from 50% to 200% of GDP.

  It is true that Abenomics was an active game-winner for economic stimulus, but in the end, quantitative easing is a key policy, so it is not a conceptually new trend. Many people, both inside and outside Japan, have the view that the success or failure of the policies of the second Abe cabinet will determine the fate of Japan. At the end of 2019, it has been repeatedly confirmed that the consumption tax will increase from 8% to 10%. It also started accepting foreign workers from April 2019.

 

 

 

(2). foreign policy

 

1). strong friendliness

  In a nutshell, strong pro-American tendencies and anti-China and anti-North Korea policies. This is also in line with the traditional diplomatic line of the Japanese LDP. In Japan, as in Korea, the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party is pro-American, and the left-wing opposition parties are generally pro-China and friendly. Therefore, Abe and the LDP government have received the full trust of the United States to contain China.

 

2). Korea- Japan Relations
  The relationship between the Republic of Korea and Japan during the Abe administration has the following characteristics in light of the modern history of relations between the two countries. Of course, it cannot be compared with the times when relations between the two countries were bad during the Syngman Rhee administration and during the Park Chung-hee administration, but in the mid-1990s, when President Kim Young-sam’s history correction was implemented in the post-democratization administration, Korea and Japan together with South Korea and Japan in 2012, when President Lee Myung-bak visited Dokdo. It can be said that this is the point at which the relationship deteriorated rapidly.

 

  The causes of deterioration in relations are not temporary, such as remarks by Japanese politicians or a one-time event, but rather the issue of the comfort women/forced labor under Japanese rule, the far right in Japanese politics, the relative indifference of the US administration to East Asia, and the continued negative perception of the top leaders of the two countries toward each other. It was a long-term and structural problem. In particular, economic measures toward Korea, which seemed to have been decided directly by the Japanese Prime Minister's residence, acted as a decisive factor in the deterioration of bilateral relations.

  In the past, the US has actively tried to mediate to restore relations between the two countries to maintain stability and hegemony in East Asia. Rather than succeeding to the traditional diplomatic principles of the United States, it showed that it was abandoned in such a way that it did not have much interest in conflicts between its own countries and allied countries.

 

 

 

(3). Military Policy - Massive Armament Reinforcement and Neutralization of the Peace Constitution

 

  Under the strong support of the United States and Western countries, the Abe Cabinet has implemented a large-scale military build-up policy that abandons the post-war line that Japan has relied entirely on the United States for security and increases deterrence and aggression against anti-Western countries such as China, Russia, and North Korea. This is done throughout the period. Of course, South Korea, North Korea, and China, which were victims of war by the Japanese Empire in East Asia in the past, strongly oppose it, but Japan, which has secured the support of Western countries including the G7, ignores this resistance lightly and is rapidly increasing its naval and air power. is in progress

  Japan's defense budget increased from 4.7 trillion yen in 2012, when Abe took office, to 5.3 trillion yen in 2019, and in 2018, it created an amphibious task force equivalent to the marine corps of other countries. In addition, it has built two Izumo-class ships that are de facto aircraft carriers, and has ordered more than 100 F-35s and more than 20 additional 30FFMs, which are destroyers-class.

  In addition, it succeeded in amending the right to collective self-defense in the Peace Constitution and began to develop high-speed glide missiles for island defense, which are effectively surface-to-surface ballistic missiles, in addition to the introduction of JASSM and JSM air-to-surface cruise missiles, which are purely offensive weapons. In the future, it plans to develop and deploy its own supersonic surface cruise missiles, and since the budget increase has already been completed, there is a lot of public opinion that the peace constitution has effectively neutralized it.

 

 

 

(4). Internal Policy - Foreign Worker Acceptance Policy

  Under the Abe administration, the number of foreign workers in Japan was 1.38 million as of 2018, double the number before he took office. In October 2018, it approved a bill to accept 500,000 foreign workers by 2025, and if passed, it will take effect from April 2019.

  According to this bill, Japan now allows low-wage simple laborers to work as workers for five years, and for technical workers, they can bring their families, extend their visa virtually unlimitedly, and obtain permanent residency. In addition, the requirements for the Japanese language proficiency test will be greatly relaxed. Abe repeatedly emphasized that this was not an 'immigration policy', but at the same time admitted that he was promoting a multicultural immigration policy, saying, "Japanese culture cannot be forced on foreigners. We must find a way to coexist."

  Of course, there is fierce opposition from the conservatives, the main supporters of the LDP, but according to the survey, it is expected that the passage will pass smoothly, with the result that a majority of Japanese people tolerate immigration and opening up. Among the opposition parties, only the Japan First Party strongly opposes it, and the rest of the right-wing parties such as the Japanese Yushinhoe are all in favor. If the principle of equal pay for equal work is applied, it is a welcome change.

  As a result, Abe is expected to become the first prime minister to make a decision to immigrate to Japan on a large scale. In particular, as 28% of the Japanese population is elderly and young people avoid difficult jobs, rural and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in rural areas and rural areas are already closing their businesses one after another because there is no one to work for, and there are no fundamental countermeasures for the low birth rate and aging population, so immigration is a natural consequence.

  However, skeptics at home and abroad say that Abe's work is nothing more than a subdivision of the status of residence, and that he is only now recognizing the de facto workers who have been in the field for a long time under the name of technical trainees. Also, the ratio of foreigners residing in Japan has been talked about for a long time, but there is a voice that the number of illegal immigrants is intentionally reduced and announced. However, this is also expected to be a crisis for Japanese workers in Korea. With the outbreak of the trade dispute between Korea and Japan, it is currently Japan's only practical trade immigration system and employment immigration system, which means that it will be possible to successfully complete employment through legal residency for more than 5 years. There is a high possibility that the immigration system in which city permanent residency is issued will be disrupted, and moreover, since it has already been announced as a sequential provisional card to be pulled out by Abe and his aides, it is expected that there will be a huge setback for Japanese job seekers in Korea. to be.

 

 

[Shinzo Abe] Birth, adolescence, marriage, political career, biography of Shinzo Abe

 

 

5. Personal inclination

 

(1). hot-blooded

  When he stopped talking during the broadcast, he pulled out the earphones for broadcasting and continued what he had to say. Also, he is known for making terribly insulting boos at questions from opposition lawmakers. Sarcasm with a sarcastic look at the speaking opposition party saying, 'Eh~?' or video shouting "Communist Party!" to a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party, or saying, "Isn't that what you made?" Rep. Yomi's questions include "It's a meaningless question." This eccentric personality seems to be famous even in Japanese politics, as his entourage Hiroshige Seko points out.

 

 

(2). English skill

  good at English. Of course, I can't help it with a Japanese accent and pronunciation, but I'm still good at English. In fact, since I lived and studied abroad in the United States, it would be natural. During his first prime ministership, he left a welcome message to foreign tourists. It was part of "Yokoso Japan" of the Japan Tourism Organization at the time.

 

 

(3). Use of SNS

  A politician who actively uses social media such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, he posts an average of 1.8 Facebook posts a day. It enjoys unrivaled popularity enough to be called the 'internet prime minister', and it receives favorable and bad reviews as it severely criticizes former bureaucrats, incumbent opposition lawmakers, and Korea itself with a tablet PC that is always on hand. It's a very problematic behavior, but Japanese conservatives and the younger generation say they're passionate about it. In particular, on President Lee Myung-bak's visit to Dokdo in 2012, Abe posted an article saying, "It's a riot. If the occupying side takes a provocative action, it's ignorant." This is a very rare type of internet activity in Japan, so he is obviously a popular prime minister.

  These days, photos and videos taken with diplomats are being uploaded mainly through Twitter rather than Facebook, and policy promotion posts are also being posted. He said in February 2019 that he did not have a smartphone in the House Budget Committee. Meanwhile, in October 2021, YouTube was opened ahead of the 49th midfielder. He uploaded his Seiwa Research Group's policy pledges, an election promotional video for the 4 districts of Yamaguchi, a local district, and a campaign for support. 

  After all, it was SNS that gave his assassin decisive information. The assassin confirmed his Nara city campaign information announced the evening before the assassination on Twitter the previous day, and showed meticulousness in calling the local LDP camp to confirm. There is a slight time lag between uploads to YouTube and Instagram, and Japanese netizens' commemorative comments were mostly made on the last post.

 

 

(4). movie buff

  He is known as a famous movie buff. They visit the cinema more than 50 times a year to watch a movie. I watch a movie at least once a week, almost every week, either on a public holiday or on a Wednesday evening if there is no public holiday. Japanese people do not visit movie theaters often, so the average number of movie viewings per person is barely over 1, about 1.5. Korea ranked 4.1 times in the same index. Shinzo Abe watches a lot of movies that is unprecedented at the level of head-of-state politicians around the world. In fact, even at the level of the general public, if they watch an average of 50 movie theaters per year, they are already in the top 0.1% of moviegoers. A year is about 52 weeks, so it's like watching a movie almost every week.

  On December 31, 2018, I watched a movie called A Lovely True Story of a Banana on such an ambitious night with my wife on such an ambitious night, and on January 1, 2019, I started the new year with Bohemian Rhapsody. It is an exposed aspect. If you see that Japanese cinema tickets cost between 1,800 and 2,000 yen for 2D movies, the expenditure on movies will be huge. Both TOHO Cinemas and AEON Cinema are being used, and both are known to have VIP levels (exact level unknown).

  Abe's cinematic tendencies range from low-budget independent films to foreign blockbuster commercial films and animated films. Superhero movies are known for not watching. Even Shion Sono and Hirokazu Koreeda, who have a bad relationship with Shinzo Abe, sometimes post opinions on Twitter after Shinzo Abe sees them.

  Because of Abe's film fanaticism, he offered several support measures to the Japanese film industry, one of which was the Cool Japan business. However, in October 2018, Shinzo Abe himself responded to a question by the National Assembly, saying that the Japanese film market could not grow, such as stagnating at around $2 billion. At this time, Abe said, "I want Japanese people to love movies more. I think it's good to watch a lot of movies from different countries and different genres, whether it's Japanese or foreign movies."