Just in case anyone is missing the significance of Abe Shinzo's sudden rush to meet with Donald Trump, try recalling who Abe is, or at least who is supposed to be according to his domestic critics and elements of the international news media and non-Japanese academia.
Come with me on a short walk-through what seems to be Ultimate Irony Town:
Come with me on a short walk-through what seems to be Ultimate Irony Town:
Abe Shinzo
Is traveling to the United States
To plead with the incipient leader of the United States
To foster and preserve a liberal, rules-based order in the Asia-Pacific
And ask him to not indulge himself in facile, nationalist posturing,
Lashing out based on a dated and embarrassing worldview.
Do you need to hear that again?
Abe Shinzo
Is traveling to the United States
To plead with the incipient leader of the United States
To foster and preserve a liberal, rules-based order in the Asia-Pacific
And ask him to not indulge himself in facile, nationalist posturing,
Lashing out based on a dated and embarrassing worldview.
Now some links to commentary by folks I admire:
On the Trump victory’s implication for American leadership in East Asia, Daniel Sneider
On the importance of TPP, Mireya Solis
James D. J. Brown on the implications of the Trump victory for Japan-Russia relations
On the Abe visit with Trump, Robert Dujarric
As I have been saying for a long while, though hardly believing it myself:
Abe Shinzo = liberal icon
Later -
I would endorse Funabashi Yoichi's op-ed for The New York Times but the judgmental "should" appears too often for my tastes. Perhaps others would benefit from reading it, nonetheless:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/16/opinion/the-trump-effect-on-tokyo.html?_r=1
2 comments:
You have been right all along. Abe is a centrist (center left if he was living in the US or EU) but more than that he is a pragmatist. He is most interested in trying to accomplish things and not take empty political stands. We have seen that on sales tax, election timing, TPP (in the face of the US election rhetoric), and are already seeing it play out again in his rational approach to amending the constitution. I have not always agreed with some of his positions or some of his personnel decisions but I have fought back against the western meda repetition of anti-Japanese government CCP propaganda propped up by western academics in Japan who are siloed and so enamoured with their personal far left based views of what is "best for Japan of THEIR (not Japanese poeple's) dreams" that they tar him a right wing nationalist history revisionist nut case. Nothing could actually be further from the facts.
@ Michael
If Abe is indeed a centrist and pragmatist (in an earlier post, you mentioned that he abandoned his right-wing allies regarding the comfort women issue, for instance), then what motivates his authoritarian behavior and that of politicians who support him? One factor that testifies to Abe's authoritarian tendencies is how he has attempted to silence his critics in the Japanese press. Another factor is the security law. Additionally, proposed amendments to the constitution included decreeing national duties such as patriotism and prohibiting public disorder. These proposals are scary, even if the LDP never intended to make them into law (although, as you note in Tokyo On Fire, previously abandoned proposals concerning security could become law now that Japan is unsettled by Trump's victory).
Is Abe simply Machiavellian, implementing authoritarian policies for the sake of maintaining his power? It was mentioned in Tokyo On Fire that the opposition made the threat of constitutional amendments central to its campaigning, but that Japanese voters were focused on economic issues and not particularly concerned about the issue of the constitution. Why did voters care more about economic problems than the ethical problem of authoritarianism?
I am very curious about these questions, so I would greatly appreciate any insight you could offer into Abe.
-Cuttlefish
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