Shinzo Abe (born September 21, 1954, Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese politician who served twice as Prime Minister of Japan (2006-07 and since 2012). Prominent politician who implemented both political and economic reforms.
Biography of Shinzo Abe
The current Prime Minister of Japan is a member of a prominent political family. His grandfather, Kishi Nobusuke, served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1957 to 1960, while his great-uncle Sato Eisaku served in the same post from 1964 to 1972. After graduating from Seikei University in Tokyo (1977), Abe moved to the United States, where he studied political science at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. In 1979, he returned to Japan and joined Kōbe Steel, Ltd. He subsequently became an active member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and in 1982 began working as a secretary for his father, Abe Shintaro, who was Japan's foreign minister.
Political career
In 1993, Abe took a seat in the lower house of the Seimas (parliament), and then held a number of government posts. He got a lot of support for his toughstance towards North Korea, especially after it was discovered in 2002 that it had kidnapped 13 Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 80s. Abe, who was then deputy chief cabinet secretary, led the subsequent talks. In 2003, he was appointed General Secretary of the LDP. Due to term limits, Prime Minister and LDP leader Koizumi Junichiro was forced out of office in 2006, and Abe succeeded in replacing him in both posts. Abe became the country's first prime minister born after World War II and the youngest politician in office since the war.
Foreign policy course
In terms of foreign policy, Shinzo Abe, who has a conservative outlook, sought to strengthen ties with the United States and pursue a more assertive foreign policy. Abe supported United Nations sanctions against North Korea in the wake of that country's nuclear tests and imposed a series of unilateral sanctions on North Korea, including a ban on all visits to Japanese ports by North Korean ships. He also promised to revise the country's post-war constitution, which placed severe restrictions on its military.
Shinzo Abe's Domestic Policy
In domestic affairs, the prime minister promised to strengthen pension and he alth insurance systems. However, his government soon became embroiled in a series of public and financial scandals. In addition, the administration has been criticized for its slow response to claims thatfor a decade, the government misused the retirement accounts of millions of citizens. In July 2007, the LDP lost its majority in the upper house of the coalition led by the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), and in September Shinzo Abe announced that he was resigning. He was replaced by Fukuda Yasuo.
He retained his seat in the lower house of the Sejm but remained politically quiet for several years, especially after the DPJ-led coalition took control of the government in 2009. However, that all changed when he was re-elected leader of the LDP in September. One of his first acts was to visit the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, a memorial to fallen soldiers, where those convicted of war crimes during World War II are also buried. This sparked loud protests from other countries in the Asia-Pacific region and further controversy over his views on the sovereignty of the Pacific Islands, which were contested by China and Japan, and his stance in favor of revising Japan's pacifist constitution. However, the LDP won a stunning victory in the December 16, 2012 elections. On December 26, the new LDP majority in the chamber, backed by members of the Komeito party, overwhelmingly approved Abe as prime minister. He replaced Noda Yoshihiko of the DPJ, who stepped down the same day.
Economic program
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe quickly rolled out an ambitious economic program designed to stimulate Japan's long-livedeconomy and help speed up the recovery of the northeastern region of Honshu (Tohoku or Ou), devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The program, quickly dubbed Abenomics, included measures such as raising inflation to depreciate the yen against the US dollar and other foreign currencies, and increase the money supply and government spending on major projects. The Abe government received a major political boost in the July 2013 elections to the upper house of the Diet, when candidates from the LDP and its Komeito allies won enough seats to guarantee them a majority in that house.
Shinzo Abe's economic program seemed to work initially, with strong growth in 2013 and the first half of 2014 and subsequent decline in the unemployment rate. However, the second phase of a three-stage increase in the national consumption tax (introduced in 2012 by the DPJ-led government) in April 2014 contributed to a sharp decline in Japan's economy during the rest of the year. By autumn, the country had fallen into recession, and Abe's approval rating had fallen. He decided to dissolve the lower house and call for urgent parliamentary elections, which were held on 14 December 2014. Abe and the LDP won by a wide margin. At the same time, he guaranteed that he would keep the prime minister's cabinet. Voters, however, were not very enthusiastic, and their numbers were at an all-time low.
Constitutional reform
After a big victory onIn the LDP elections, the administration of Shinzo Abe actively engaged in the revision of the constitution of Japan. In 2014, the cabinet approved a rethinking of the so-called peace clause in the constitution, which paved the way for the approval of bills in May 2015 that would make it easier for Japan to use military force if the country were attacked or threatened. These bills were subsequently passed to the lower house in July and the upper house in September.
Opposition standoff
Opposition to the measures was quite strong, given that former Prime Minister Murayama Tomichi joined the protesters. The Abe government has also faced controversy over a new stadium in Tokyo for the 2020 Olympics. The design by architect Dame Zaha Hadid was initially accepted, but was rejected in 2015 amid concerns over construction costs. However, Abe's position in the LDP remained strong, and in September 2015 he was elected leader of the party.
Although Abe's approval rating has remained consistently below 50 percent since December 2014, the LDP won the July 2016 elections to the upper house of the Seimas. This result allowed the LDP and Komeito to continue the constitutional changes that Abe had been working on for a long time. The LDP's advance was a near collapse for the opposition in the form of the DPJ, which struggled to present any credible alternatives to Abenomics. A series of scandals in early 2017 brought Abe's popularity to an all-time low. At the end of the summer there was a need forholding early elections to the lower house. The DPJ, which renamed itself the Democratic Party after merging with the Japan Innovation Party in 2016, effectively split in September 2017. Its right wing joined the Hope Party, which continued the reforms initiated by the governor of Tokyo and former LDP member Koyo Yuriko. He has become the strongest opponent of the Abe government since he returned to power in 2012.
