Shinzo Abe’s Japan
Abe was assassinated on Jul 8, 2022.
May he R.I.P
What impacts Abe made as a Prime Minister of Japan ?
Abe was in office as PM in 2006/2007 and 2012-2020. When he was in power, Japan was already in a lost decade with the asset bubble ruptured in 1990s. From 1955-1990 Japan’s property price increased 75 times, and Tokyo’s total property value was enough to purchase the entire properties of America. An average property mortgage loan could take a Japanese family 3 generations to pay off. Japan’s economic downturn has been a top financial media subject because the decline appeared to be a pity as Japan has been one of most innovative countries in the world in various industries and a top economic power. Abe come into office when the frustrated Japanese people that really needed a leader to turn around the economic downturn and decline on the world stage.
These are the policies Abe implemented
Economic policies - He introduced a set of policies called the Abenomics. These include Quantitative easing, Government spending and Structural reforms in economic regulations to encourage investment and improve competition. The reforms include easing of restrictions to employ foreign staff and reduction of ineffective staff.
Political - He adopted the right-wing political stance to boost the Japanese pride to draw support for its policies implementation, engage with United States to confront China’s rise and ambition in Asia.
Military – He strengthen Japanese’s self-defence force to face China and North Korea. Push to revise laws to make the self-defence force to achieve full military status and become more active in response to foreign aggressions from country like China. Moving forward to building Japan’s military in active defence.
Does his policies work?
From the economic perspective Japan’s economy improved by 2013 since his implementation from 2012, unemployment rate decreased from 4% to 3.7%. The Yen dropped against the USD by 25% making export more competitive, stock market increased by 55%. GDP growth improved slightly and moved away a little from a worsening economic condition and decline.
It is considered a good achievement as Japan has been facing negative population growth since 2010 which meant decline would have been inevitable.
From a political perspective, Abe was considered successful, he was the longest serving PM in Japanese History. Abe has been a significant figure head and leader in Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party since he was in power from 2006 until his death by assassination on July 8, 2022.
From a military perspective, Abe drew further commitments from the United States in the defence treaty to confront China. His policies made China to realise Japan is a force to be reckoned. He recently rallied to support his view that China’s attack on Taiwan is Japan’s security threat matter, and strengthen United States’ stance that pivot to Asia to counter balance China’s rise in military power and political influence. This has contributed to peace in the region in a way that it increased China’s costs and risks of attacking Taiwan or reclaiming disputed territory.
Source :
Abenomics
