In the early hours of 11 July 2022, the results of the 26th Senate election were announced, with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party alone gaining a majority of the re-elected seats. At the same time, the constitutional revision forces have more than two-thirds of the seats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, meeting the necessary conditions to initiate a motion to amend the constitution in the Diet.
This follows the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on July 8. Before his assassination, he was actively campaigning for LDP candidates in various constituencies in the Senate election.
The push for constitutional change is one of his political legacies since coming to power.
“Compared to others, Abe’s policy ideas for constitutional revision are the clearest and most concrete, not only constructing theory but also promoting to practice.” Shen Haitao, a professor at the Centre for Northeast Asian Studies at Jilin Foreign Studies University, told Southern Weekly.
On July 11, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said in a question-and-answer session that he hoped the Japanese side would seriously learn the lessons of history, adhere to the path of peaceful development and take practical action to win the trust of its Asian neighbours and the international community.
Constitutional amendments
Like his maternal grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, and his maternal uncle, Eisaku Sato, Shinzo Abe is a firm advocate of constitutional revision.
Fifteen years ago, Abe told visiting journalists, “Japan’s current constitution was written for the occupation forces …… Some articles are not suitable for today’s times, including Article 9 of the constitution.”
This is one of the most central provisions of the post-war Japanese Constitution. It clearly states that the Japanese people “forever renounce war and the threat or exercise of force as a means of settling international disputes on the basis of national sovereignty”.
Abe said his political genes come from his maternal line.
As children, Abe and his brother used to play at the Foreign Minister’s residence, where their grandfather Nobusuke Kishi worked.
Kishi Nobusuke was one of the promoters of pseudo-Manchukuo, and was known as one of the “The Manchurian Five”, along with World War II Class A war criminal Tojo Hideki and others. After Japan’s defeat, he was imprisoned for three years on suspicion of being a war criminal, but was eventually spared trial.
On 19 May 1960, the Japanese House of Representatives voted on whether to recognise the new Japan-US security treaty. The ruling party, led by Nobusuke Kishi, used its numerical advantage to pass the treaty quickly. On 18 June of the same year, a huge crowd of protesters shouted slogans while throwing stones and rubbish at the Prime Minister’s residence.
Abe’s mother, Yoko Abe, recalls the riot in The Real Life of Father Kishi Nobusuke: “In the house surrounded by protesters, Father (Kishi Nobusuke) played with his grandchildren. For the children, the demonstration was something like a holiday festival.”
That year, Shinzo Abe was less than six years old. Less than a month later, Nobusuke Kishi was assassinated, wounded in the leg, and announced his resignation the following day.
The resignation of Nobusuke Kishi did not interrupt the Kishi family’s political path, and in 1964, Nobusuke Kishi’s brother, Shinzo Abe’s maternal uncle Eisaku Sato, was inaugurated as Prime Minister of Japan.
Eisaku Sato was adopted into the Sato family at a young age and thus changed his surname. Together with Nobusuke Kishi, he is the only brother Prime Minister since the introduction of the Cabinet system in Japan.
In recent times, a large number of political figures have emerged in Yamaguchi Prefecture, and the local vote has gradually been dominated by the three major families, Kishi, Sato and Abe. The three families have formed a network of political connections, with their marriages and adopted sons, dominating the Japanese political scene.
Under an agreement reached with President Nixon during Sato’s visit to the US in November 1969, the Japan-US Security Treaty was automatically extended in June 1970.
That, in Abe’s eyes, “the media deliberately presents the show that the conservative LDP, which seeks to uphold the Japan-US security treaty, is the bad guy, while the new forces, which advocate its abrogation, are the good guys”.
“In the face of history, Anbe does want to overturn the case. ” Professor Shen Haitao believes.
On July 1, 2014, the cabinet, led by Shinzo Abe, formally passed a major revision on the “lifting of the ban on collective self-defense”.
Since then, Abe has been obsessed with “revising the constitution”, “righting” the name of Japan’s self-defense forces, denying the comfort women issue, questioning the “Tokyo trial” and adopting textbooks that deny historical aggression. ……
The family’s political legacy
Unlike many Japanese political leaders who have a glamorous resume, Shinzo Abe’s early years were uneventful. He spent his primary, secondary and tertiary education at the 16-year school system of Seikei Gakuen.
In 1977, at the age of 22, Shinzo studied in the United States and returned home after only two years to work at the Kobe Steel Works. It was only when his father, Shintaro Abe, became Foreign Minister that Abe became his father’s secretary, and then he began to get involved in politics and diplomacy.
At first, according to public records, Abe was reluctant to quit his job at Kobe Steel. Eventually, his boss asked him over dinner, “What are you worried about? Do you want to become a politician?”
That evening, Shinzo Abe told Shintaro that he had agreed to take up the post of secretary.
In 1993, after the deaths of his grandfather and father, Abe contested and was first elected to the House of Representatives, and in 2001 he was appointed deputy chief of staff to the Koizumi cabinet.
“Koizumi was like a mentor to Abe and also promoted Abe, grooming him as the successor to the LDP.” Shen Haitao said.
On September 20, 2006, Shinzo Abe was elected as the new president of the LDP, and on September 26 of the same year, he was elected prime minister.
The Japanese media reported that at this moment, “the person behind Abe’s strong support was Yoko Abe.”
Since her early twenties, Yoko Abe has been giving speeches in her father’s constituency, supporting her father, Nobusuke Kishi. After marrying Shintaro Abe, she also became active in Shintaro’s constituency.
Just as she helped her father and husband, Yoko Abe also spared no effort to support her son Shinzo Abe to continue the family glory. Yoko Abe’s election guidance was extremely meticulous, even advising “not to speak too fast in your speeches, so that the elderly can’t hear you”.
In September 2007, Abe held a press conference and said he was resigning for “health reasons”.
“The resignation of Abe during his first term in office should have been a thoughtful move to take stock of the situation and think far ahead. The purpose is to avoid the immediate unfavorable dispute and prepare for a bigger goal later.” Professor Shen Haitao told Southern Weekend that contemporary Japanese politicians tend to be forgotten or treated coldly by the nation after they resign. And Abe’s ability to govern for a second time and achieve a comeback is closely related to his summing up of the experience of his first failed administration.
In the House of Representatives election on 16 December 2012, the LDP returned to power with a landslide victory. On the same day, Abe was elected as the Prime Minister.
According to Professor Shen Haitao, in his second term in office, Abe’s political philosophy was very clear and well-executed, and he had a clear and adequate arrangement for his governing career. Moreover, he was able to balance the interests of all parties within the LDP and achieved a solid party base.
“Strong and balanced are the two key words of Abe’s governing style.” Professor Liang Yunxiang of the School of International Relations at Peking University told Southern Weekend.
During his tenure, Abe not only maintained his position in power for a longer period of time, but also strengthened the Japan-US alliance diplomatically, relatively improved Japan-China relations, and moved around frequently with the EU, ASEAN and Russia.
The spring of 2020 saw the outbreak of the new crown epidemic that swept the world, and Japan’s economy fell into recession for the first time since 2015. A Kyodo poll in the same year showed that, regarding the suitable candidate for the next Japanese Prime Minister, Shigeru Ishiba had an approval rating of 23.6%, 9.4 percentage points higher than Abe (14.2%), who came in second place.
Subsequently, Shinzo Abe resigned citing health reasons. At this point, Abe has been in power for 2,822 consecutive days, making him the longest consecutive prime minister in Japan’s history.
After his resignation, Abe is still active in Japanese politics. There was speculation that he might pay a third visit to the Prime Minister after building up his strength.
However, a sudden attack halted all that.
When she heard the news that her son Shinzo Abe had been assassinated, 94-year-old Yoko Abe burst into tears.
The “godmother” of Japanese politics, who has helped her father, husband and son to the centre of power for three generations, has witnessed the prominence and prosperity of both the Kishi and Abe families, as well as the dangers of power and the loneliness of the curtain call.
Her father, Nobusuke Kishi, was assassinated during his term of office and her husband, Shintaro Abe, died with regret.
Now, it is her son’s turn.
Shinzo Abe died in the attack at the age of 67, the same age his father died.
The neglected, shunned grandfather
In his public statements, Shinzo Abe often refers to the influence of his maternal grandfather Nobusuke Kishi on him, while he rarely mentions his grandfather Kuan Abe.
Abe was a pacifist politician who served as a member of the House of Representatives of Japan. He was a clean man who was suppressed for his criticism of the militaristic line of the Tojo government.
During the Pacific War, he and his friend Takeo Miki often avoided Japanese gendarmerie checks and walked the streets to promote anti-war ideas. Miki’s wife Mutsuko recalled years later that “the two of them often went out on a hungry stomach to propagate and give speeches”. When they did have food, it was only “rice balls made by Mutsuko”.
Shortly after the war, Abe joined the Japan Progressive Party and was preparing to run in the elections that year when he died of a heart attack.
His contemporary Kishi Nobusuke had also heard of the anti-war legislator and referred to him as the ‘Yoshida Matsunin of the Showa era’ – a modern thinker who enlightened many of Japan’s Meiji Restoration elite.
Years later, when the marriage of Kishi Nobusuke’s eldest daughter Yoko to her boyfriend Shintaro was on the agenda, Kishi said, “If it’s Abe Kuan’s son, then there’s no need to worry.”
In 1996, Shinzo Abe wrote a book about the influence of his elders on him. It mentioned that his father Shintaro’s participation in the war made him think about why the war happened, while his maternal grandfather Nobusuke Kishi gave him a sense of the wild ride Japan was on before the war.
However, Kuan Abe, who shouted “anti-war” as Japan slid into the abyss of war, is not mentioned at all.
“From the standpoint of the hawkish politician, it is possible that he did not want to make Abe Kuan, who held anti-war ideas, the source of his own political thinking.” Author Tadashi Nogami claims in the article.
Years ago, Abe stressed his willingness to revise the peace constitution and his desire to promote a degree of independence from the United States – which provides Japan with security – on condition that Japan gives up its intact military forces and allows US troops to be stationed throughout Japan.
“My brother put his life on the line in politics.” Shinzo Abe’s brother, Japanese Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi, said at a press conference after his assassination.
Translator：Sofia Lee