An opinion piece I happened to come across here on Japan Today probably best describes my thoughts on the late ex PM Shinzo Abe, and why the rest of the world seems to adorn him with praise, yet it's like a completely different feeling within Japan, the country he was serving.
Basically, he put more work towards international policies, but on the other hand, seemingly neglecting domestic policies, and the people he was supposed to be serving.
Also, it was no secret that he was really pushing for the amendment of the Japanese constitution, especially Article 9, which dictates the role of Japan's military in that it cannot operate outside of Japan, and is only meant to defend the country. Changing article 9 would have meant that Japan could send it's forces overseas - currently, Japan can only send non-combatants to other countries to help in technical/engineer type of roles. Yet while people in Japan are against any kind of change to article 9, the LDP is still hoping to push through eventually, though with things the way they are now in Japan and the rest of the world, amending the constitution isn't exactly a priority right now.
Most people will probably remember his domestic economic policies - or "Abenomics" as being a complete dud in the end after 2 years. And let's not forget the Abenomask, or as some had unflatteringly called it, the Ahonomask (aka, the idiot mask). Oh, and a quick reminder that I did a review on the Abenomask when they were eventually distributed out to residences for free - but only two per household. Basically, those masks weren't great for grown adults, but good as an extreme last resort if you can't purchase any other masks - but fortunately compared to 2020, finding masks to purchase ain't that hard anymore.
On the other hand, you don't get to be the longest serving prime minister in Japan without doing a few things right along the way, but the circumstances of his resignation really changed how I perceived Abe. His resignation citing health reasons seemed to be a really poor way to hide the fact he was running away like a coward because he dropped the ball on the handling of the CCP virus. While I wasn't a fan of his first successor, Yoshihide Suga, I definitely respected him more when he just came right out and said he wasn't up to the job of PM when he resigned. At the moment current PM Fumio Kishida seems to be trying his best to avoid the mistakes made by his predecessors.
It is tragic that Abe was killed, but it is good to see an opinion piece that highlighted why views and perceptions of him are so different domestically and internationally.
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