Word: koizumi
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Though Koizumi all but anointed abe as his successor, another leader may bear even more responsibility for boosting Abe to the premiership: Kim Jong Il. As deputy cabinet secretary, Abe accompanied Koizumi on his historic trip to Pyongyang in 2002. After Kim shocked Japan by admitting that North Korea had kidnapped Japanese nationals, including Megumi Yokota, Abe became the face of Tokyo's response. When a group of surviving abductees visited Japan, Abe insisted they not return to the North. "From then on he was very popular on TV and among the general public," says Jun Iio, professor of government...
...convention on Sept. 1, when he declared his candidacy for party president. He won't get the chance to do that; but Abe will almost certainly reinterpret the constitution in a way that allows the military to engage in collective self-defense actions with allies, a move Koizumi?no softie on defense?never pulled off, even while he dispatched Japanese forces to Iraq. Such changes are a way to further cement the country's all-important alliance with the U.S., and position Japan against the inevitable rise of China. In Abe's worldview the two countries have very different national...
...These are the kind of comments that make Abe's critics nervous. "Abe is the epitome of this anti-Asia, anti-China feeling that is strengthening in Japan," says Morita. Under Koizumi, thanks largely to his repeated visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, Japan's relations with China and South Korea are worse than they've been in decades. It's possible that Abe, who visited Yasukuni in the past and has questioned the validity of the Tokyo trials of Japan's wartime leaders, will worsen the damage. "There's a lot of apprehension in Seoul and Beijing about whether...
...peoples of many countries," and he has made clear his desire to resume high-level meetings with China and South Korea, most likely at the APEC summit in Hanoi this November. Most significantly, he has refused to say whether he'll go to Yasukuni as Prime Minister?unlike Koizumi, who made a campaign pledge to visit the shrine. For their part, the leaders in Beijing and Seoul seem ready to meet Abe halfway. "If Abe is in a strong position domestically, it wouldn't surprise me if he doesn't visit Yasukuni," says Malcolm Cook, an Asia director...
...essentials, he seems as committed as Koizumi to more economic reform. In one of the few meaningful sections of his campaign book, Towards a Beautiful Country, Abe emphasizes his belief in providing an equality of opportunity, not one of outcome. "A society with no income differential," he writes, "would have no vitality." Abe has little direct economic experience, but that may not matter, says Robert Feldman, Morgan Stanley's co-director for Japan research, if he builds a strong cabinet. "Will he do things the bureaucrats tell him, because he appoints ministers who are docile?" asks Feldman, who hopes...