Shinzo Abe’s Stablizing Influence in Asia Will Be Missed
Shinzo Abe will not be Japan’s Prime Minister forever, and once he leaves office he might just be missed.
Abe is the first Japanese prime minister in decades with a strategic vision of Japan’s role in the world. He recognized that Japan could no longer sit quietly, writing the occasional check, while events unfolded around it.
Foremost, he saw that close ties with the United States are indispensable for Japan – and that forging a strong Japan-US relationship required Tokyo to become a more useful ally. And by playing an active regional and global role – including militarily – Japan could raise its stature.
The US long wanted Japan to be a more active ally and to play a more substantial defense role. Unfortunately, the US government wasted a year after Abe’s election, keeping him at arm’s length for his views of history, comfort women and his reputation as a “rightist.”
However, the Americans finally got over this and got what they wanted – as evidenced by the 2015 revision (and improvement) of US-Japan defense guidelines and Abe’s successful passage of measures broadening what Japan can do under the doctrine of “collective self-defense.”
One should not assume this trajectory toward a more assertive Japan will continue. Abe is a veritable Otto von Bismarck compared with many of his predecessors – who seemed to view a Japanese prime minister’s primary purpose as recycling money from the central government to favored supporters and back again.