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Japan’s Abe, “China’s Xi Jinping is a fierce realist” in his memoir

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The memoirs of Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, Shinzo Abe, who was shot dead in July last year, were published on the 8th. Comments on former U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping were published.

According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei), the “Memoirs of Shinzo Abe” (Chuokoronshinsha) published on the same day included conversations between former Prime Minister Abe and foreign leaders, including former President Trump and President Xi.

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Former Prime Minister Abe evaluated former President Trump as “in any case, it was unconventional.” He said he had a purpose to build a relationship with former President Trump, including golf diplomacy.

In the background, “As a real problem, if Japan becomes a target (for former President Trump), the entire country falls into a serious situation. It was important to create an environment where we could have conversations,” he emphasized.

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He also pointed out that former President Trump did not have the perception that he was a leader in the Western world. Former Prime Minister Abe claimed that he repeatedly urged former President Trump to “act as a leader of the free world.”

Former Prime Minister Trump, who seemed belligerent, actually had a passive idea of ​​military action, and North Korea, who noticed this, was “desperate to hide his true nature” with the US government in order not to be pressured.

Regarding former US President Barack Obama, the predecessor of former President Trump, “I only talked about work. Building a friendship-like relationship is the difficult type.”

Regarding President Xi, it was seen that the power base was solidified, saying that he spoke without reading the remarks prepared in advance from the meeting in about 2018.

Also, President Xi said one day, “If you were born in the United States, you would not join the American Communist Party. He said that he would join the Democratic Party or the Republican Party,” and analyzed that he was “an intense realist (realist).”

Regarding China-Japan relations, he emphasized, “Managing security issues and turning China’s market value into Japan’s opportunity in terms of economy is a political skill.”

Regarding Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom former Prime Minister Abe met 27 times during his tenure as prime minister, he evaluated that he “looks cool, but is surprisingly straightforward.”

Former Prime Minister Abe also published a political judgment on the dissolution of the House of Representatives (House of Representatives) and criticism of the Ministry of Finance in his memoirs.

In the 2017 House of Representatives election, Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko (小池百合子) founded the ‘Party of Hope’, saying, “I was defeated by Governor Koike. I thought it was a great thing,” she recalled. Governor Koike originally belonged to the same ruling Liberal Democratic Party as former Prime Minister Abe, but left the party and founded it.

He described Governor Koike as a “joker” and evaluated that “the driving force behind him is an upward trend.”

In October 2015, when I made the decision to delay the 10% increase in the consumption tax rate, in relation to the Treasury Department, “The power of the Ministry of Finance in charge of budgeting is strong. It also contains the content that they are coming to take down the regime that does not follow their will.”

Regarding the dissolution of the House of Representatives (House of Representatives) in November 2014, which proposed a postponement of a 10% increase in the consumption tax rate, he also explained the reason, “I had no choice but to disband in order to shut the mouths of those who advocated a tax increase.” In Japan, the Prime Minister has the power to dissolve the House of Representatives.

Former Prime Minister Abe said that he placed importance on relations with Liberal Democratic Party Vice President Taro Aso, former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, and former LDP Secretary-General Akira Amari in managing the administration.

In the Abe cabinet, Vice President Aso served as Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, and former Prime Minister Suga served as Chief Cabinet Secretary for a long time. Former Secretary-General Amari served as Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry and Special Minister of the Cabinet (economic and fiscal policy).

Former Prime Minister Abe explained that the reason why he valued the relationship with these three people was that “if the Abe regime collapses, (three people) are family members, not enemies.” He emphasized to the Liberal Democratic Party, “I wanted to appeal that these four people did not collapse at all.”

He said that the reason he ran for the party president election in 2012, the starting point of the second Abe cabinet, was “Suga’s words.”

He recalled that former Prime Minister Suga visited former Prime Minister Abe’s home at the time and urged him to “go out.” Later, he explained that he had consulted with Vice President Aso, who supported Sadakazu Tanigaki’s candidacy in the election at the time, and conveyed his position that he would not run if he did not gain Mr. Aso’s support.

Former Prime Minister Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, was shot while giving an election speech in Nara Prefecture on July 8, 2022, was taken to the hospital, and died after receiving treatment. He is 67 years old.

This memoir is a compilation of interviews with former Prime Minister Abe by Goro Hashimoto (橋本五郞) special editorial member of the Yomiuri Shimbun and Hiroshi Oyama (尾山宏) vice-president of editorial board. It was supervised by Shigeru Kitamura, who served as the director of the National Security Bureau in the Abe cabinet.

The interviews were conducted a total of 18 times over 36 hours for about a year from October 2020, a month after former Prime Minister Abe retired.

Former Prime Minister Abe took office in November 2021 as the head of the ruling LDP’s largest faction’Abepa’. In line with this, I tried to publish a memoir in early 2022, but the publication was delayed at the request of former Prime Minister Abe because there were many sensitive parts in the content.

Later, when former Prime Minister Abe died in July of last year, the publication was decided with the consent of his wife, Akie.

At the age of 52, he took office as the 90th prime minister in September 2006, and resigned in September 2007 due to health problems. I see this as the first Abe cabinet. The second cabinet began in December 2012 when he took over as prime minister for the second time. He resigned again in September 2020 due to aggravating his chronic illness.

The number of consecutive terms of office in his second cabinet is 2822 days, which is about 7 years and 8 months, and the number of consecutive terms of office as Prime Minister, including both the first and second terms, is 3188 days, or about 8 years and 8 months. Both periods were the longest on record.

Even after stepping down as prime minister, he has exercised great influence in the government and politics. As the head of the Abe faction, the largest faction in the LDP, he has also influenced the operation of the cabinet.

Source: Donga

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