A charismatic, nationalist and polarizing figure from an aristocratic political family, Abe will be remembered for reviving the economy of Japan, the world’s third largest; To give political stability to the country; and increasing its geopolitical stature.
Prior to his first term as prime minister, which lasted just one year, 2006–2007, Japan had nine prime ministers over 16 years.
Abe returned to office in 2012, when Japan’s exports were weak, trade relations with China were challenging, and the people and economy grapple with the continuing effects of the 2011 nuclear disaster and tsunami.
Abe’s second term lasted eight years from 2012 to 2020, making him Japan’s longest-serving prime minister. He was able to use his long years in office to initiate economic reforms, although the extent of his success is debatable, and to lift the country out of the economic impasse that had hit the property and stock markets in the 1980s. It happened after the burst of the U.S. bubble, when Japan lost to the new rising stars on the global economic stage. As Japan’s economic stagnation ended, the national mood improved.
Abe’s bold economic policies were named Abenomics, the “three arrows” of which were fiscal stimulus through increased public works spending; ultra-lax monetary policy, or quantitative easing; and a fundamental overhaul of the economy through structural reforms.
The idea of cranking up the economy with low, and even negative, interest rates. Monetary loosening and fiscal spending were both temporary measures to deal with the pain of structural reforms, the main strategy for achieving economic growth.
The Abenomics inflation target of 2% was never met, and deflation remained a problem despite the central bank’s massive program of buying government bonds to stimulate the economy.
Abenomics was not a runaway success. Its critics point to Japan’s deepening inequalities and say it did not provide the necessary basis for sustainable development. Also abenomics fell short on structural reforms. The pay hike was moot. As a result, abenomics reduced to the only arrow of quantitative easing in practice.
Nevertheless, jobs were created, protections for non-permanent workers improved and unemployment halved under Abe’s watch, and a weak yen-backed exports were creating optimism in the country, which ensured that his policies were premiership. Saved from change. Following his resignation due to health issues, his successors, Yoshihide Suga and now Fumio Kishida, have not trashed Abenomics, although the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic has largely reversed the economic benefits from these policies.
Accused of promoting abenomics to address inequalities, Kishida launched his own set of policies called “new capitalism” that prioritized income redistribution.
Another legacy of abenomics is the “female-science” which sought to end the structural gender bias of the economy that kept the female labor force unemployed for generations. This produced modest results, but brought to the fore the underlying injustice that keeps women out of the workplace, to discourse not only in Japan, but in many countries, including India.
At a time when globalization and free trade were under threat, Abe engaged Japan in new trade deals. His vision was for “a free and open Indo-Pacific”. After the US exited the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the TPP became instrumental in pursuit of then-President Donald Trump’s America First approach, along with Japan, led by Abe. The remaining signatories helped ensure that the multilateral trade agreement did not collapse.
Abe deepened Japan’s alliance with the US to counter China’s military growth and ambition, and its increasingly aggressive bid to dominate the South and East China Seas. His efforts to strengthen ties with India were part of this strategic stand.
Abe played a key role in bringing together the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, a security grouping from Japan, the US, India and Australia, aimed at countering China’s assertiveness.
Japan’s international situation improved with Abe’s approach to diplomacy which could often be constructive (he flew to the US and held President-elect Donald Trump with a gilded golf club as soon as the results of the 2016 US presidential election were known). presented; the same year he also popped up at the closing ceremony of the Rio Olympics dressed as Super Mario).
Abe’s controversial political agenda included support for whitewashing wartime atrocities. He did not want Japan to apologize for World War II, and felt that the country’s record of post-war peace, international cooperation and economic progress should be taken more seriously by the world. He believed that the US had rewritten the country’s constitution after the war because it limited Japan’s use of its military for self-defense.