Shinzō Abe

Early life

Family

Shinzo Abe was born on 21 September 1954 to a prominent political family in Shinjuku, Tokyo. His father Shintaro Abe served in the House of Representatives from 1958 to 1991, with stints as Chief Cabinet Secretary, Minister for International Trade and Industry, and Minister for Foreign Affairs, and was considered a strong candidate for prime minister before his death. His mother Yōko was a noted calligrapher.

Abe's maternal grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, was a minister in the wartime cabinet of Prime Minister Hideki Tojo. At the end of the war, Kishi was imprisoned as a suspected "Class-A" war criminal by the US military occupation of Japan, but was released and later de-purged as part of the Occupation's "reverse course" due to the Cold War. Kishi helped found the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in 1955 and served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1957 until his 1960 resignation following the Anpo protests. Abe viewed Kishi as his "No 1 role model" and was influenced by many of his beliefs, like Kishi's hawkish stance on China. Regarding Kishi, Abe later wrote: "Some people used to point to my grandfather as a 'Class-A war criminal suspect,' and I felt strong repulsion. Because of that experience, I may have become emotionally attached to 'conservatism,' on the contrary".

Abe's paternal grandfather, Kan Abe, was a Yamaguchi landowner who served in the House of Representatives during World War II. Kan Abe was a pacifist who opposed the Tojo government and war in East Asia.

Education and early career

Abe attended Seikei Elementary School and Seikei Junior and Senior High School (成蹊中学校・高等学校). Although as a boy he aspired to become a filmmaker, Abe's family history led him upon a political path. At the age of 17, he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. He studied public administration and graduated with a bachelor's degree in political science from Seikei University in 1977. From 1978 to 1979, Abe attended the University of Southern California where he studied English as a visiting student. After taking courses in history, international relations, and political science for three semesters, Abe left. Abe is reported to have been an average student.

In April 1979, Abe began working for Kobe Steel. He left the company in 1982 to serve as secretary to his father, who had been appointed foreign minister in the Nakasone cabinet. Shintaro Abe visited 81 countries in the 1980s. These travels imparted to Abe the importance of building relations with foreign leaders. He continued as secretary when his father served as chairman of the LDP General Council and LDP secretary-general.

Early political career

Member of the House of Representatives

After his father's death in 1991, Abe was elected to the first district of Yamaguchi Prefecture in 1993, winning the most votes of the four Representatives elected in the SNTV multi-member district. Abe joined the Seiwa Seisaku Kenkyūkai, a faction in the Liberal Democratic Party. Shintaro Abe had headed the faction from 1986 until his death. Yoshirō Mori and Junichiro Koizumi were seniors in the faction. When Abe first became a member of parliament, the opposition parties had agreed to form a "non-LDP, non-communist" government with Morihiro Hosokawa as Prime Minister. The LDP later returned to government by forming a coalition with the Japan Socialist Party, with JSP leader Tomiichi Murayama as Prime Minister. Abe and other conservatives supported the coalition, but criticized the compromises given, with Abe later wriing that "By making the leader of a party with public approval of only five or six percent prime minister, naturally the dissatisfaction within the party was amplified. The opposition was especially large from people who had become representatives who approved of the LDP’s ideas, who, if I had to say, belonged to the conservative mainstream."

Abe became one of the few newly elected LDP representatives to be named to the Foreign Affairs Committee. During this time, he extensively read on the constitution and national security, while also reading the writing of conservative author Susumu Nishibe and Spanish theorist José Ortega y Gasset’s The Revolt of the Masses. During the 1990s, Abe joined various right-wing conservative parliamentary groups such as the Diet members’ league of the Shinto Association of Spiritual Leadership, the 50th Anniversary of the End of the War established in 1994, and the Junior Parliamentarian Group to Consider Education and the Way Forward for Japan and the Nippon Kaigi Parliamentarian Association established in 1997. He was particularly active in the Junior Parliamentarian Group, where he served as the director of its Secretariat. Many of his future political allies came from these groups, including his close political friend Shōichi Nakagawa, with whom he focused on battling the "masochistic" narrative on the comfort women.

Abe also took on the issue of Japanese abductees taken to North Korea; in 1997, he raised the issue in the Diet, where he criticized the government's response as "equivalent to abdicating the duties of the state". He became involved in the creation of the Association of the Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea and became the leader of the Parliamentarians’ League to Rescue Japanese Citizens Suspected of Being Abducted by North Korea. He attacked the LDP, the bureaucracy and the media for its handling of the issue, accusing North Korea of "state terrorism". In 1998, he became the deputy chairman of the LDP's Parliamentary Affairs Committee. Abe suffered a severe ulcerative colitis attack in 1998 but found a treatment to that allowed remission. April 1999 he formed a study group with Yasuhisa Shiozaki, Nobuteru Ishihara, and Takumi Nemoto that was dubbed as the "NAIS Club". In 1999, Abe became Director of the LDP Social Affairs Division. In 2000, Abe's home and the office of his supporters in Shimonoseki, in Yamaguchi Prefecture, were attacked with Molotov cocktails on numerous occasions. The perpetrators were several yakuza belonging to the Kudo-kai, a Kitakyushu-based designated bōryokudan syndicate. The reason for the attacks was believed to be that Abe's local aide refused to give cash to a Shimonoseki real estate broker in return for supporting a Shimonoseki mayoral candidate in 1999.

Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary

Abe was Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary in the Yoshirō Mori and Junichiro Koizumi Cabinets from 2000 to 2003. During this time, he had a close relationship with Koizumi, though his relationship with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda was chillier. In one instance in 2002, 2001, Abe secured a visa for former Taiwanese president Lee Teng-hui despite Fukuda's objections. In May 2002, Abe made an off-the-record statement during a speech at Waseda University stating that Japan was not prohibited from possessing nuclear weapons, which reportedly enraged Fukuda.

Abe was the chief negotiator for the Japanese government on behalf of the families of Japanese abductees taken to North Korea. As a part of the effort, he accompanied Koizumi to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in 2002. After North Korea revealed a list of abducted Japanese citizens, with some being dead, Abe advised Koizumi to be prepared to leave without signing a joint consensus if Kim Jong Il was not prepared to apologize. He gained national popularity when he demanded that Japanese abductees visiting Japan remain in the country, in defiance of North Korea. Kim later spoke to the Japanese delegation, acknowledging the "appalling incident", with the two countries subsequently signing the Pyongyang Declaration. North Korea's admittance of the abductions caused Abe's popularity to rise due to his previously hawkish stance on North Korea. Abe also successfully pushed Koizumi's administration for a tougher stance on North Korea. After North Korea allowed the five victims that it said were alive to return to Japan, on the condition that they return later to North Korea, Abe argued that they should not be returned, while Fukuda urged the government to honor the deal. Eventually, Abe secured a victory and the abductees were not returned; the eight family members of the abductees were eventually released in May 2004.

Secretary-General of the LDP and Chief Cabinet Secretary

In September 2003, Koizumi mulled appointing Abe as an LDP Deputy Secretary-General; instead he was appointed LDP Secretary-General. Abe was the leader of a project team within the LDP that conducted a survey on "excessive sexual education and gender-free education". Among the items to which this team raised objections were anatomical dolls and other curricular materials "not taking into consideration the age of children", school policies banning traditional boys' and girls' festivals, and mixed-gender physical education. The team sought to provide a contrast to the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which it alleged supported such policies. After the 2003 general election, in which the DPJ gained seats, Abe was demoted to acting secretary-general. Abe supported sending the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) on a dispatch to Iraq to help rebuild the country after the United States invasion. In a parliamentary vote to approve the dispatch of the SDF, Abe tried convince to three skeptical senior LDP representatives, Kooichi Katoo, Makoto Koga and Shizuka Kamei, to vote in favor, later issuing reprimands against them due to them abstaining.

Abe was quiet on the privatization of Japan Post, instead focusing on cultural issues. On 13 October 2005, Koizumi appointed Abe as Chief Cabinet Secretary, helping Abe to be more visible. Regarding the economy, Abe favored fiscal expansion instead of raising taxes. On 12 August 2006, he declared his candidacy for the LDP presidential election. His chief competitors for the position were Sadakazu Tanigaki and Tarō Asō. Yasuo Fukuda was a leading early contender but ultimately chose not to run. Former prime minister Yoshirō Mori, to whose faction both Abe and Fukuda belonged, stated that the faction strongly leant toward Abe. On 20 September 2006, Abe was elected to succeed Koizumi as the president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

First premiership (2006–2007)

First Cabinet

On 26 September 2006, Abe was inaugurated as Japanese prime minister. Elected at age 52, he was the youngest prime minister since Fumimaro Konoe in 1941. He was also the first prime minister born after World War II. Abe's first cabinet was announced on 26 September 2006. The only minister retained in his position from the previous Koizumi cabinet was Foreign Minister Tarō Asō, who had been one of Abe's competitors for the LDP presidency. In addition to the cabinet positions existing under Koizumi, Abe created five new "advisor" positions. He reshuffled his cabinet on 27 August 2007. Commentators noted that these changes seemed to be an effort by Abe to organize the prime minister's office into something more akin to the White House. The New York Times observed that his cabinet appeared to place a larger emphasis on foreign policy and national security instead of domestic concerns like economic policy. It also speculated that Abe's primary goal may have been to revise the pacifist constitution.

Domestic policy

Abe expressed a general commitment to the reforms instituted by his predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi. He took some steps toward balancing the Japanese budget, such as appointing a tax policy expert, Kōji Omi, as minister of finance. Omi previously supported increases in the national consumption tax, although Abe distanced himself from this policy and sought to achieve much of his budget-balancing through spending cuts. He started using the term "re-challenge" (再チャレンジ), emphasizing the need to give all Japanese second chances to succeed. Accordingly, Abe convened an advisory council to draft reforms to promote new opportunities for the disadvantaged. Lawmakers close to Abe, led by Yoshihide Suga, launched the Parliamentary League in Support of Re-Challenge. On 23 October 2006, Abe stated he was looking for some LDP members who were expelled for opposing Koizumi's privatization of Japan Post back to the party, which caused a decline in his popularity. Eventually, Abe sought a compromise by requiring those who were expelled that want to return to sign loyalty pledges.

In March 2007, Abe stated that there was no evidence that the Japanese military had forced women into sexual slavery during World War II, which the Japanese government had admitted and apologized for in the 1992 Kono Statement. Responding to a potential motion by the US Congress encouraging Japan to acknowledge the atrocity, Abe stated that the Japanese government would not apologize again. Abe held conservative views in the Japanese imperial succession debate. Shortly after the birth of Prince Hisahito of Akishino, he abandoned a proposed legislative amendment to permit women to inherit the Chrysanthemum Throne.

Foreign policy

Abe generally took a hard-line stance on North Korea, especially regarding the North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens. Abe publicly recognized the need for improved relations with China and, along with Foreign Minister Tarō Asō, sought an eventual summit meeting with General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese president Hu Jintao. Abe also said that China–Japan relations should not continue to be based on "emotions". Abe, in his four terms as the prime minister of Japan, sought to upgrade the strategic Japan–India relationship. Abe initiated the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue between Japan, the United States, Australia, and India in 2007, which was seen as a counter to China's rising power.

Defense

Abe sought to revise or broaden the interpretation of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution in order to permit Japan to maintain de jure military forces. He stated that "we are reaching the limit in narrowing down differences between Japan's security and the interpretation of our constitution". During his first period as prime minister, he upgraded the Japan Defense Agency to full ministry status. Like his predecessors, he supported the Japanese alliance with the United States. Abe supported the US-led Iraq War.

Resignation

In the lead-up to the July election, Abe's Agriculture Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka committed suicide following a series of political funding scandals. He was the first cabinet member to commit suicide since World War II. Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party suffered great losses in the upper house election, losing control for the first time in 52 years. Agricultural minister, Norihiko Akagi, involved in a political funding scandal, resigned after the election. Additionally, Abe's rejection of a possible female Japanese monarch, which led to the Japanese succession controversy, diminished his support base. In an attempt to revive his administration, Abe announced a new cabinet in August 2007. Support for Abe rose by 10 percent as a result; however, the new agricultural minister Takehiko Endo, involved in a finance scandal, resigned only seven days later.

On 12 September 2007, only three days after a new parliamentary session had begun, Abe announced his intention to resign his position as prime minister at an unscheduled press conference. The announcement came just minutes before opposition leaders were scheduled to question him in Parliament and shocked many. Abe had described himself as a "politician who fights" and previously pledged not to resign. Abe explained that his unpopularity was hindering the passage of an anti-terrorism law, involving among other things Japan's continued military presence in Afghanistan. Party officials also said the embattled prime minister was suffering from poor health.

Out of office (2007–2012)

Abe remained in the National Diet following his resignation as prime minister. He was re-elected to his Yamaguchi 4th district seat in the 2009 election, when the Liberal Democratic Party lost power to the DPJ. On 15 October 2010, Abe delivered a speech in Washington DC to the Hudson Institute on US-Japan relations. Japan had recently been surpassed by China as the number two economy in the world, a position that it had held for the previous 40 years. Abe said: "It appears that China hopes to gain control not only over Taiwan, but also over the South China Sea, the East China Sea and, indeed, the entire Western Pacific... China's military strategy has rested on the concept of a 'strategic frontier'. In a nutshell, this very dangerous idea posits that borders and exclusive economic zones are determined by national power, and that as long as China's economy continues to grow, its sphere of influence will continue to expand. Some might associate this with the German concept of 'lebensraum'." Abe saw in the ASEAN countries a counterbalance to Chinese expansionism. Abe feared the Finlandization of Japan with respect to China, and saw the reaction of the Kan Cabinet to the September 2010 Senkaku boat collision incident as "a very foolish move" and "frighteningly naive". He stated the "imperative that Japan conduct a review of its Three Principles on Arms Exports."

While serving as a member of the Japanese Diet, Abe visited Taiwan in 2010 and 2011. There he met with president Ma Ying-jeou, former president Lee Teng-hui and future president Tsai Ing-wen, who was then the leader of the Democratic Progressive Party. Ma described Abe as "the ROC's best friend" and said Abe was the third generation of his family to have close ties with the Republic of China. Abe also visited the National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine, a shrine dedicated to the war dead of the Republic of China, including those who died in the Second Sino-Japanese War. Abe later revealed that the illness that contributed to ending his first term as prime minister was ulcerative colitis, but that he recovered due to access to a drug, Asacol, that was previously unavailable in Japan.

Second LDP presidency and 2012 general election

Following the resignation of LDP president Sadakazu Tanigaki, Abe was re-elected as president of the party on 26 September 2012, coming in second out of five candidates in the first round of voting, but defeating former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba in a runoff vote by 108 votes to 89.

Abe returned to the LDP leadership at a time of political turmoil, as the governing DPJ had lost its majority in the lower house due to party splits over nuclear policies and the cabinet's move to raise the consumption tax from 5 to 10 percent. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda was forced to rely on the LDP to pass the consumption tax bill and in return was pressured by Abe and the opposition parties to hold a snap general election. Noda agreed to this on the conditions that the LDP passed a bond-financing bill and would support a commission to reform the social security system and address electoral malapportionment in the next diet session.

On 16 November 2012, Prime Minister Noda announced the dissolution of the lower house and that the general election would be held on 16 December. Abe campaigned using the slogan "Nippon o Torimodosu" ("Take back Japan"), promising economic revival through monetary easing, higher public spending and the continued use of nuclear energy, and a tough line in territorial disputes. In the elections on 16 December 2012, the LDP won 294 seats in the 480-seat House of Representatives. Together with the New Komeito Party (which partnered with the LDP since the late 1990s), Abe was able to form a coalition government that controlled a two-thirds majority in the lower house, allowing it to override the upper house's veto.

Second premiership (2012–2020)

Second Cabinet (2012–2014)

On 26 December 2012, Abe was formally elected as prime minister by the Diet, with the support of 328 out of 480 members of the House of Representatives. He and his second cabinet were sworn in later that day. The new government included LDP heavyweights such as former prime minister Tarō Asō as deputy prime minister and finance minister, Yoshihide Suga as chief cabinet secretary and Akira Amari as economy minister.

The Second Abe cabinet revived the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy (CEFP) that had played a key role in formulating economic policy during the Koizumi cabinet, but had been abandoned by the 2009–2012 DPJ administrations.

Abe declared in his 2013 policy speech to the Diet that economic revival and escaping deflation was "the greatest and urgent issue" facing Japan. His economic strategy, referred to as Abenomics, consisted of the so-called "three arrows" (an allusion to an old Japanese story) of policy. The first arrow was monetary expansion aimed at achieving a 2% inflation target, the second a flexible fiscal policy to act as an economic stimulus in the short term, then achieve a budget surplus, and the third a growth strategy focusing on structural reform and private sector investment to achieve long-term growth.

At the first CEFP meeting in January 2013, Abe declared that the Bank of Japan should follow a policy of monetary easing to achieve a target of 2 percent inflation. Abe maintained pressure on the bank's governor, Masaaki Shirakawa, who was reluctant to set specific targets, into agreeing to the policy. In February, after Abe publicly speculated that the government could legislate to strip the bank of independence, Shirakawa announced he was leaving office prematurely before his term expired. Abe then appointed Haruhiko Kuroda as governor, who had previously advocated inflation targets, and who has pursued the government's policies of monetary easing.

After the first meeting of the bank's monetary policy committee after he had taken office in April, Kuroda announced an aggressive program of easing intended to double the money supply and achieve the 2 percent inflation target at "the earliest possible time". Over the first six months of the second Abe Cabinet, the Yen fell from a high of ¥77 to the dollar to ¥101.8, and the Nikkei 225 rose by 70 percent.

Third Cabinet (2014–2017)

On 24 December 2014, Abe was re-elected to the position of prime minister by the House of Representatives. The only change he made when introducing his third cabinet was replacing defense minister Akinori Eto, who was also involved in a political funding controversy, with Gen Nakatani. In his February policy speech, as the Cabinet weathered a Moritomo Gakuen school scandal, Abe called upon the new Diet to enact "most drastic reforms since the end of World War II" in the sectors of the economy, agriculture, healthcare and others.

On a tour of the Middle East in January 2015, Abe announced that Japan would provide 200 million dollars in non-military assistance to countries fighting against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant as part of a 2.5-billion-dollar aid package. Shortly after this, ISIL released a video in which a masked figure (identified as Mohammed Emwazi or "Jihadi John") threatened to kill two Japanese hostages, Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa, in retaliation for the move unless Abe's government paid 200 million dollars of ransom money. Abe cut short his trip to deal with the crisis, declared that such acts of terrorism were "unforgivable" and promised to save the hostages while refusing to pay the ransom. The Abe cabinet worked with the Jordanian government to attempt to secure the release of both hostages, after further videos were released by ISIL linking their fate to that of the pilot Muath al-Kasasbeh, with deputy foreign minister Yasuhide Nakayama conducting negotiations in Amman. Both hostages were killed with ISIL releasing news of Yukawa's death on 24 January and Goto's on 31 January. Abe condemned the killings as a "heinous act", declared that Japan would "not give in to terrorism" and pledged to work with the international community to bring the killers to justice. There was some criticism of Abe for his move to pledge aid against ISIL while they were holding Japanese citizens hostage, but polls showed support for his administration increasing in the aftermath of the crisis. He later used the example of the hostage crisis to argue the case for the collective self-defense legislation that his government introduced in the summer of 2015 (see below).

In April 2015, Abe addressed a joint session of the United States Congress, the first Japanese prime minister to do so. In his speech he referred to the Japan–US Alliance as the "Alliance of Hope", promised that Japan would play a more active security and defense role in the alliance and argued that the TPP would bring both economic and security benefits to the Asia-Pacific region. The address served as part of a state visit to the United States, the eighth of the Obama Presidency, which President Obama referred to as a "celebration of the ties of friendship" between America and Japan. During the visit, Abe attended a state dinner at the White House.

Fourth Cabinet (2017–2020)

The 2017 general election was held on 22 October. Prime Minister Abe called the snap election on 25 September, while the North Korea crisis was prominent in the news media. Abe was expected to retain a majority of seats in the Diet. Abe's ruling coalition took almost a majority of the vote and two-thirds of the seats.

On 20 September 2018, Abe was re-elected as leader of the main ruling Liberal Democratic Party. On 19 November 2019, Abe became Japan's longest-serving prime minister, surpassing the 2,883-day record of Katsura Tarō. On 24 August 2020, Abe became the longest-serving prime minister in terms of consecutive days in office, surpassing Eisaku Satō's 2,798-day record.

In March 2018, it was revealed that the finance ministry (with finance minister Tarō Asō at its head) had falsified documents presented to the parliament in relation to the Moritomo Gakuen scandal, in order to remove 14 passages implicating Abe. Further accusations arose the same year that Abe had given preferential treatment to his friend Kotarō Kake to open a veterinary department at his school, Kake Gakuen. Abe denied the charges, but support for his administration fell below 30% in the polls, the lowest since his taking power in 2012. The scandal was referred to by some as "Abegate".

The scandals, while not damaging his political standing permanently, did little good for his image. In July 2018, Abe's public standing was further hit after he held a drinking party with LDP lawmakers during the peak of the floods in western Japan. In 2020, Abe came under further criticism for extending the term of top Tokyo prosecutor Hiromu Kurokawa, who later resigned amid a gambling scandal. Abe's approval rating fell from 40% to 27% during the month of May 2020, largely due to his handling of the Kurokawa situation.

Abe supported the 2018 North Korea–United States summit. Abe, however, cautioned President Trump not to compromise on North Korea's missile program and leave Japan exposed to short-range missiles or relieve pressure on North Korea too soon before complete denuclearization. Reports in 2019 revealed that Abe authorized covering up information about two missing people from Japan living in North Korea.

In 2018, Abe paid a formal visit to China, in the hopes of improving foreign relations, where he had several meetings with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Abe astated that he hoped Xi Jinping would visit Japan to cultivate better relations between the two countries. At the G20 Summit. Abe told Xi it is important for "a free and open Hong Kong to prosper under the 'one country, two systems' policy".

Assassination

On 8 July 2022, at around 11:30 JST, Abe was shot and mortally wounded while he was delivering a campaign speech at the Yamato-Saidaiji Station, Nara. He was supporting fellow LDP party member Kei Satō for the House of Councillors election. The assassin approached Abe from behind and fired two shots using an improvised firearm. The first shot missed and prompted Abe to turn around, at which point a second shot was fired, hitting Abe in the right front of the neck and the left upper arm. He was fatally struck in an artery near the heart.

Abe was rushed to the Nara Medical University Hospital in Kashihara by helicopter. Prior to his arrival at the hospital, Abe had already shown no vital signs. Despite a transfusion of 100 units of blood (≈ 30 liters), the blood loss was too great and attempts to resuscitate Abe failed; he died there aged 67 at 17:03 JST.

A 41-year-old man named Tetsuya Yamagami, a former JMSDF member, was immediately arrested and later confessed to local police. Yamagami said he held a grudge against the Unification Church and shot Abe because "the religious group and Abe were connected". Yamagami said his mother had been brainwashed by the religious group, giving the church all of his family's money and leaving them so destitute that he and his siblings often did not have enough to eat. They became so despondent, he added, that his brother had committed suicide and he himself had attempted it.

Yamagami had been trying to kill Hak Ja Han of the Unification Church since around 2002, but gave up because he could not get close to her, changing his target to Abe. Yamagami told investigators that he did not harbor any resentment for Abe's political beliefs, but had targeted him because he believed the former prime minister was responsible for spreading the religion in Japan. Abe and his family were known to have long-standing ties to the Unification Church, dating back to his grandfather Nobusuke Kishi; Abe himself had held speeches in support of the religious movement. According to research by Nikkan Gendai, half of the twenty members of the Fourth Abe Cabinet had connections to the Unification Church. The connection between the two groups was found peculiar by some as the South Korean-based Unification Church raised billions of dollars' worth of funds from its Japanese followers ("since the 1970s" most of the church's money has come from Japan), playing on feelings of "war guilt" towards Korea, while Abe was famous for his proudly unapologetic embrace of Japan's imperial past and denial of any oppression of Koreans.

Political positions

Some have described Abe as a right-wing Japanese nationalist. In a 1996 book he co-wrote with two other lawmakers, Abe credits his grandfather Nobusuke Kishi as the source of his conservatism. In his memoir Towards a Beautiful Country, he writes that "A strong state is not a potential threat to political liberty that must be restrained by constitutionalism and civil society. It is the ultimate guarantor of national independence in a dangerous world governed by the law of the jungle". While accepting that strong states might be used against its citizens, he rejects the view that oppression is inherent in strong states but is instead caused by "closed governments" dominated by a small number of people.

Historical negationism

Some have claimed that Abe often engaged in historical negationism via his membership in Nippon Kaigi, especially in regard to Japanese war crimes during World War II. According to some analysts, this caused Japan's relations with South Korea and China to deteriorate under his premiership. In China, Abe's legacy remains mixed. While he was often criticized as an extreme nationalist, others also recognized his efforts for reconciliation between the two countries. Since 1997, as the bureau chief of the "Institute of Junior Assembly Members Who Think About the Outlook of Japan and History Education", Abe led the Society for History Textbook Reform. Abe was affiliated with the ultra-conservative, revisionist organization Nippon Kaigi (Japan Conference).

According to Alexis Dudden, a professor of history at the University of Connecticut who specializes in modern Japan and Korea, in the 1990s when Abe first became a parliamentarian he is believed to have co-authored a document denying the Nanjing Massacre; the article used to be available in Japan's Diet archives but has since disappeared. Abe also made comments that denied the occurrence of the massacre. Dudden has said Nanjing Massacre denial is akin to Holocaust denial.

On 1 March 2007, Abe denied to reporters that Japan forced women into sexual slavery during World War II, claiming that there was "no evidence" for that. He elaborated that he meant "forcible in the narrow sense of the word". On 26 March 2007, he apologized, saying: "I express my sympathy toward the comfort women and apologize for the situation they found themselves in". On his official homepage, he questioned the extent to which coercion was applied toward the comfort women, dismissing South Korean positions on the issue as foreign interference in Japanese domestic affairs; Abe's position towards the comfort women caused deteriorations of relations between Japan and South Korea. In a Diet session on 6 October 2006, Abe revised his statement regarding comfort women and said that he accepted the report issued in 1993 by the sitting cabinet secretary, Yōhei Kōno, wherein the Japanese government officially acknowledged the issue. Later in the session, Abe stated his belief that Class-A war criminals are not criminals under Japan's domestic law.

In a meeting of the Lower House Budget Committee in February 2006, Abe said, "There is a problem as to how to define aggressive wars; we cannot say it is decided academically", and "It is not the business of the government to decide how to define the last world war. I think we have to wait for the estimation of historians".

Response to the mass media

The Asahi Shimbun accused Abe and Shōichi Nakagawa of censoring a 2001 NHK program concerning "The Women's International War Crimes Tribunal". The "tribunal" was a private committee which was established to adjudicate the complaints of comfort women; about 5,000 people, including 64 victims from Japan and abroad, attended. The members of the committee, who claimed to be specialists in international law, claimed that Emperor Hirohito and the Japanese government were responsible for the use of comfort women. However, the TV program did not mention the full name of the tribunal, it omitted keywords such as "Japanese troops" and "sexual slavery", and it also cut the sight of the tribunal, the host grouping, the statements of the organizer, and the judgment itself. Instead, it presented criticism of the tribunal by a right-wing academic who stated that "there was no abduction of sex slaves and they were prostitutes".

On the day following the broadcasting of the report by Asahi Shimbun, Akira Nagai, the chief producer and the primary person who was responsible for the program, held a press conference in which he stated that Abe stated that the content of the report by the Asahi Shimbun. "had to be broadcast from a neutral point of view" and "what I did is not giving into political pressure". Abe said, "It was political terrorism by Asahi Shimbun and it was tremendously clear that they had the intention to inhume me and Mr. Nakagawa politically, and it is also clear that it was a complete fabrication." He also characterized the tribunal as a "mock trial" and raised objection to the presence of North Korean prosecutors, singling them out as agents of the North Korean government. Abe's actions in the NHK incident were criticized by journalists as violating both the Broadcasting Act and the constitution.

On 24 October 2006, a report which stated that Abe's new administration had called on the NHK to "pay attention" to the North Korean abductees issue emerged. Critics, some even within Abe's own LDP party, charged that the government was violating freedom of expression by meddling in the affairs of the public broadcaster. In December 2006, it was revealed that former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi's government, in which Abe was Chief Cabinet Secretary, had influenced town hall-style meetings, during which paid performers would ask government officials favorable questions.

On 22 November 2012, it was reported that TBS's early morning TV show Asazuba accidentally displayed Abe's photo alongside a news report about an NHK announcer's arrest for a sex offense. Abe's face filled viewers' screens along with the name of NHK announcer Takeshige Morimoto, who anchors NHK's Ohayo Nippon program on Saturday and Sunday. Morimoto was arrested for allegedly groping a woman on the train. Abe posted on his public Facebook page, "This morning on the TBS show Asazuba, when a newscaster reported on a story regarding the apprehension of a molester, a photo of me was shown. Images of this blunder can now be seen clearly across the Internet, Have the slander campaigns already begun!? If this were merely an accident, it would be proper for the TV station to give me a personal apology, but as yet I haven't heard a single word." The newscaster acknowledged that the incorrect image had been displayed, but merely stated that the photo was "unrelated" and did not refer to the politician by name. Neither Abe nor his office received any form of apology.

Yasukuni Shrine

Abe visited the Yasukuni Shrine on several occasions, which enshrines the spirits of Japan's war dead, including several Class-A war criminals convicted in the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. While serving as Chief Cabinet Secretary in the government of Junichiro Koizumi, he visited in April 2006, prompting South Korea to describe the trip as "regrettable". He visited again on 15 August 2012, the anniversary of the end of World War II. After winning the presidency of the Liberal Democratic Party, he visited on 17 October 2012, in an official capacity as party president.

Abe initially refrained from visiting the shrine as a sitting prime minister. He did not visit at all during his first term from September 2006 to September 2007, unlike his predecessor Koizumi, who had visited yearly while in office. Abe's not visiting the shrine prompted a Japanese nationalist named Yoshihiro Tanjo to cut off his little finger in protest and mail it to the LDP. While campaigning for the presidency of the LDP in 2012, Abe said that he regretted not visiting the shrine while he was prime minister. He again refrained from visiting the shrine during the first year of his second stint as prime minister in consideration of improving relations with China and Korea, whose leaders refused to meet with Abe during this time. He said on 9 December 2013 that "it is natural that we should express our feelings of respect to the war dead who sacrificed their lives for the nation... but it is my thinking that we should avoid making [Yasukuni visits] political and diplomatic issues". In lieu of visiting, Abe sent ritual offerings to the shrine for festivals in April and October 2013, as well as the anniversary of the end of World War II in August 2013.

His first visit to the shrine as prime minister took place on 26 December 2013, the first anniversary of his second term in office. It was the first visit to the shrine by a sitting prime minister since Junichiro Koizumi visited in August 2006. Abe said that he "prayed to pay respect for the war dead who sacrificed their precious lives and hoped that they rest in peace". The Chinese government published a protest that day, calling government visits to the shrine "an effort to glorify the Japanese militaristic history of external invasion and colonial rule and to challenge the outcome of World War II". Qin Gang of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Abe is "unwelcome by Chinese people... Chinese leaders won't meet him any more". The Mainichi Shimbun argued in an editorial that the visit could also "cast a dark shadow" on relations with the United States. The US embassy in Tokyo released a statement saying that "the United States is disappointed that Japan's leadership has taken an action that will exacerbate tensions with Japan's neighbors". The Wall Street Journal reported that US officials urged Abe not to visit the shrine and pay homage to war criminals anymore. On 15 August 2014, the 69th anniversary of the surrender of Japan in World War II, Abe chose to not visit the shrine, in what was perceived as a diplomatic gesture to China, South Korea, and Taiwan. Despite Abe's absence, China and South Korea both voiced their disapproval at Japan's leadership as a large number of politicians, including three cabinet members, did attend the shrine to mark the anniversary.

Photographs with "731"

In May 2013, Abe posed for photographs giving thumbs up gestures while sitting in the cockpit of a Kawasaki T-4 military training aircraft of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force's Blue Impulse aerobatics team. The aircraft was numbered "731", which was the number of the infamous Imperial Japanese Army Unit 731 that conducted lethal chemical and biological experiments on live prisoners of war during World War II. The image was widely circulated in South Korean media and drew widespread criticism in both South Korea and China. The combination of the symbolically charged number and Abe's casual gesture was viewed as deeply insensitive and provocative. South Korean politician Chung Mong-joon described Abe's actions as "an act of direct provocation to Korea, China and other victim nations". In response, a Japanese Defense Ministry official claimed that the numbering on the jet was coincidental and that the numbers were the pilot's individual ID number.

Restoration of Sovereignty Day

On 28 April 2013, a new public event, the Restoration of Sovereignty Day (Japanese: 主権回復の日, romanized: Shuken kaifuku no hi), was held in Tokyo to mark the 61st anniversary of the end of the US occupation of Japan. It had been proposed by Abe in 2012. Since the US occupation of Okinawa ended in 1972 and nearly three-quarters of US troops in Japan continue to be stationed in Okinawa, the event, which was attended by Emperor Akihito, was denounced by many Okinawans, who saw it as celebrating a betrayal. There were demonstrations in both Okinawa and Tokyo.

Immigration policy

In 2015, the Abe government refused to admit refugees affected by conflicts in the Middle East and Africa. Abe said Japan must "solve its own problems before accepting immigrants." Abe backed a short-term work visa deal for migrant workers to "work for a limited period, earn more and return home."

Personal life

Abe married Akie Matsuzaki, a socialite and former radio disc jockey, in 1987. She is the daughter of the president of Morinaga, a confectionery manufacturer. She is popularly known as the "domestic opposition party" due to her outspoken views, which often contradicted her husband's. Following her husband's first stint as prime minister, she opened an organic izakaya in the Kanda district of Tokyo, but remained inactive in management due to the urging of her mother-in-law. The couple were unable to have children, having undergone unsuccessful fertility treatments early in their marriage.

Abe's elder brother, Hironobu Abe, became president and CEO of Mitsubishi Shōji Packaging Corporation, while his younger brother, Nobuo Kishi, became Senior Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs. Abe abstained from drinking alcohol. In addition to his native Japanese, Abe spoke English.

Legacy

Abe was often referred to as the "shadow shogun" due to his profound influence on Japanese politics during his life. After his assassination, Japanologist Michael Green described Abe as "the most consequential modern Japanese leader" and argued that Japan's future appears to be that of Abe's "vision". Following Abe's assassination, the LDP–Komeito coalition won a majority of the available seats in the upper house in the 10 July election. This gave the government a majority in the upper house. Many, such as Sheila A. Smith of the Council on Foreign Relations and East Asia expert Jeff Kingston, speculated that a revised constitution, especially a revision of its Article 9 clause which outlaws war and the maintenance of military forces, may become Abe's main legacy. Abe is also credited with engineering the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and salvaging the deal as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), after the US withdrew from the TPP in 2017.

A Washington Post analysis described Abe as the "preeminent statesman of the Indo-Pacific" whose realist approach helped build a cooperative security network in East Asia. Columnist Josh Rogin wrote that Abe's lasting legacy was a world better prepared to confront an increasingly assertive China. Similarly, US Admiral James Stavridis wrote that Abe's greatest contribution was a strengthened Japanese military. His death solicited tributes and condolences from many states and leaders, a testament to his commitment to international relations. Consultant Bill Emmott noted that thanks to Abe's diplomacy, he was more popular abroad than domestically, bearing similarities to Margaret Thatcher. Economist Matthew P. Goodman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) wrote that Abe's legacy was that of a "Champion of the Global Economic Order", whose administration launched the "Partnership for Quality Infrastructure" infrastructure project in Asia, proposed an internationally endorsed organizing principle for global data governance, kickstarted the TPP, and later salvaged it with the CPTPP. Indian commentator Harshil Mehta called Abe a "Unifier of Oceans" in his obituary due to formation of the Quad and wrote that he "stayed committed to the common cause" of Japan and India.

Conversely, Abe's nationalism and historical denialism strained long-term relations with the neighboring China and South Korea. Abe's complex legacy was displayed in both nations following his assassination, where some praised Abe's efforts to improve relations and others denounced his views on Japanese history with its neighbors. According to historian of religions Ernils Larsson, Abe's political rhetoric stoked "religious nationalism", and under his leadership the LDP forged closer ties with the "Shinto establishment". In addition, journalist Jake Adelstein argued that Abe left a legacy vexed by authoritarianism, with his actions throughout his tenure such as the intimidation of media that were critical of him leading to Japan's fall on the Press Freedom Index to as low as 72nd, stoking anti-Korean sentiments, as well as the creation of a "Cabinet Personnel Bureau" to vet bureaucratic positions of anyone that may be openly critical of the government, among others.

Honours

Abe received state honours, including the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum as well as posthumously being appointed Junior First Rank.