Conservative politician Shinzo Abe was Japan’s prime minister from 2006 to 2007, and he became prime minister again in 2012.
Who is Shinzo Abe?
Shinzo Abe was Japan’s prime minister from September 2006 to September 2007. Shinzo became prime minister again in 2012, promising to fix Japan’s failing economy (following policies that were dubbed “Abenomics”). Shinzo is a politician on the right who comes from a family with a long history in politics. Shinzo Abe is a member of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party. Abe wrote about his life and his hopes for Japan in the book Toward a Beautiful Country. One of his long-term goals has been to change Japan’s pacifist constitution. He showed up at the closing ceremonies of the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro dressed as Super Mario to promote the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. In August 2020, Shinzo Abe said that he was leaving his job because of his health.
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Early Life:
On September 21, 1954 Shinzo Abe was born in Tokyo. (Some sites list Nagato, Abe’s hometown in the Yamaguchi prefecture, as his birthplace). Shintaro Abe, Abe’s father, was a foreign minister. After his father died in 1991, Abe ran for his seat in the Diet and won it in 1993.
Prime Minister:
Abe became prime minister of Japan in September 2006. Japan has a parliamentary system, and the prime minister is usually the leader of the party with the most seats in the lower house of the Diet, the country’s legislature. Shinzo Abe was the country’s youngest leader since World War II, and he was also the first leader who was born after the war. He had been in the legislature since 1993, but he didn’t become a cabinet member until 2005. In September 2007, Abe quit as prime minister, saying that his health was bad.
Ongoing Scandals and Falling Popularity:
In 2017, the LDP changed its rules so that its leader could serve three terms instead of two. This meant that in September 2018, Abe could run for a third term as head of the LDP. If he keeps this job, Abe could be in charge of the government until 2021. This would make him Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, which is especially notable since most only stay in office for a couple of years.
Policies:
Abe is a conservative who wants to make Japan better able to defend itself. His maternal grandfather, who was also one of Japan’s prime ministers, had the same goal. But Shinzo Abe’s main goal during his second term has been to fix Japan’s troubled economy.
Leader:
After he became leader again in 2012, Shinzo Abe turned his attention back to Article 9. In 2015, he pushed through a law that changed how the constitution was interpreted so that the SDF could be sent overseas to help allies in the name of “collective self-defense.” In 2017, he said that Article 9 could be changed to recognise that the SDF exists.
Problems around the World:
In 2017, North Korea fired missiles over Japan, but Shinzo Abe has been worried about the country for a long time. In 2002, North Korea gave back to Japan five Japanese people it had taken in the 1970s (joined later by their children). Since then, Abe has kept trying to find out about other Japanese people who went missing (the number of victims is unclear.
Law on State Secrets:
Abe’s party passed a law to protect state secrets in 2013, even though there was a lot of opposition. It made it possible for civil servants who release state information to go to prison for ten years and for citizens who share that information to go to prison for five years. This could put journalists in danger.
Shinzo Abe and Donald Trump:
Abe visited Trump Tower nine days after the surprising results of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He brought a gold-plated golf club as a gift, making him the first foreign leader to meet the president-elect. Shinzo Abe and Donald Trump met again in February 2017 at the White House, where they had an awkward 19-second handshake. Abe also joined the president at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida club, where the two played golf and heard about a North Korean missile launch while sitting on an open-air terrace with other club members.
Relationship:
Even though they played golf together, the relationship hasn’t gone as well as Abe may have hoped. This is because Trump pulled the US out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (though Abe got the other members of the pact to stick with the agreement). Trump surprised the prime minister when he said he would meet with Kim Jong Un of North Korea in June 2018. Shinzo Abe was probably glad that Trump decided to cancel on Kim.
Controversies:
Late in 2013, when he was still prime minister, Abe went to the Yasukuni shrine, which is a memorial to Japan’s war dead and includes criminals from World War II. This made China and South Korea angry. Even though he hasn’t been back, he still sends ritual offerings.
Health:
Abe’s sudden resignation from his first term as prime minister was due to his health. He later said that he has ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory disease of the bowel that he’s had since middle school but that got worse while he was president. Shinzo Abe says that the drug Asacol helped him get better and get back into politics.
Resignation:
Shinzo Abe gave up his job in August 2020, saying it was for health reasons. “Even though I have one year left as prime minister and there are still problems to solve, I have decided to step down,” he told reporters in Tokyo.
Chronic Disease:
“I’ve been able to control my chronic disease for almost eight years. However, in June of this year, I went in for a regular checkup, and there was a sign of the disease,” he said. “I decided that I shouldn’t keep working as prime minister. I have to fight the illness and get treatment.”
Marriage:
Akie was a woker as a radio DJ and runs an izakaya (a Japanese pub-style restaurant) in Tokyo. Akie has talked about how she and her husband tried unsuccessfully to get pregnant while they were married. They chose not to adopt, so they don’t have any kids.