Shinzo Abe cast Japan in a leading role on the global stage

The assassinated prime minister, a product of the staid political elite, used Western-style politicking to advance his country.

Donald Trump and Shinzo Abe about to play a round of golf at Mobara Country Club in Chiba in May 2019. Picture: AFP

The assassination of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe ended one of the most remarkable political careers in modern Japanese history.

Abe was a political phoenix, rising from the ashes of a failed first term as premier in 2006-07. He returned five years later, serving from 2012 until late 2020, and reshaped Japanese foreign and domestic policy. His death removes the leading voice on Japan’s role in the world and raises questions about the future not only of Japanese policy, but also society.

The last time a major Japanese political figure was murdered was in 1960, when the chairman of the Japan Socialist Party was attacked by a teenage ultranationalist during a speech in Tokyo. Abe, 67, was campaigning for the Liberal Democratic Party in Nara, the ancient capital in central Japan, known more for its tame deer and historical landmarks than political activism.

His attacker is reported to be a former member of the Maritime Self-Defence Forces, the Japanese navy. Police arrested the 41-year-old suspect, identified as Tetsuya Yamagami, a resident of Nara. In a country where gun crime is almost unknown, the shock of the assassination has led to an uncharacteristic outpouring of grief on Twitter.

Abe’s legacy is unmatched by any Japanese politician since the 1950s. He came from a political dynasty – the son of a foreign minister and grandson of a prime minister who helped form the LDP. The legacy of his grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, once suspected by the Americans as a Class A war criminal for his activities in China during World War II, helped fuel charges by the left that Abe was a nationalist bent on remilitarising Japan, rewriting history and undermining Japanese democracy.

Yet, while Abe was a staunch anti-communist, he was far more committed to revitalising Japan’s role in Asia and the world by making it a leader of the liberal bloc of nations. He was the first Japanese prime minister to visit Pearl Harbor, in 2016, and to address US congress. He led the formation of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue linking Japan with the US, Australia, and India.

Abe formulated the concept of the “free and open Indo-Pacific” adopted by both the Trump and Biden administrations. When Donald Trump pulled the US out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Abe rescued the free-trade pact and pushed it through with the 11 remaining signatories.

On questions of constitutional reform, critics charged that Abe sought to rewrite Japan’s pacifist constitution. That was an overstatement, but he did remove post-war constraints on Japan’s ability to co-operate with allies and partners, including by allowing the export of defensive weapons and affirming the right to act in collective self-defence. At the same time, he increased the Japanese defence budget, allowing the military to modernise with F-35 fighters and new helicopter carriers.

In defending international liberal values, Abe tried to carve out a leading global role for Japan.

Arguing that international law and norms of peaceful co-operation were vital to the Indo-Pacific region, he challenged China’s might-makes-right approach to regional disputes. In pushing the Quad idea, Abe forged ties with India and Australia, and was the first foreign leader to meet Trump after his election. He reached out to NATO and revitalised ties with Britain. All these actions helped forge a functional liberal bloc in Asia.

Even after leaving office, Abe remained Japan’s most influential politician and dominated foreign policy thinking.

In February he mused publicly about whether Japan should host US nuclear weapons, touching the third rail of Japanese politics. In April he called for the US to commit to defending Taiwan in case of a Chinese attack. In doing so he became the first former leader of a major nation to support Taiwan so openly and argue that Washington’s longstanding policy of strategic ambiguity is untenable.

Abe’s accomplishments in foreign policy weren’t matched on the domestic front.

His economic reform program furthered Japan’s stimulus spending and aimed to end deflation, but regulatory reform was uneven and Japanese growth largely remained stagnant. Japan did little during his years to close the artificial-intelligence gap with China or to develop quantum computing or 5G telecommunications.

Despite that, Abe was unique in shaping a comprehensive package of economic reforms in a country long known for avoiding any moves that would strengthen market forces. He also tackled once-ignored issues, such as increasing job opportunities for women and adding skilled immigrants to help Japan’s shallow labour pool.

A product of Japan’s staid political elite, Abe learned to be a showman on the global stage.

Behind his embrace of Western-style politicking was a commitment to reclaiming his country’s place among the leading nations so as, in his own words, “to defend freedom, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law”.

It is a worthwhile legacy that he bequeaths to his country and the world.

Michael Auslin is a fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution and former associate professor of Japanese history at Yale

The Wall Street Journal