Shinzo Abe, a force of Japanese traditionalism

MADRID, 8 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) -

With the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the traditionalist conservative current in Japanese politics loses one of its main exponents and a transformer of the country's economic and military policy, thanks respectively to a liberalization effort and an attempt to move away from the postwar pacifism.

Abe served two terms as prime minister, becoming Japan's longest-serving prime minister, before resigning in 2020, saying his ulcerative colitis, the health problem he had carried since adolescence, had resurfaced.

Supported by the groundbreaking tone of his predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, and by the traditional principles of his grandfather and former Prime Minister (1957-1960) Nobusuke Kishi, Abe entered politics in 1982 as an adviser to his father Shintaro and, from there, began to rise in the ranks thanks to the aggressiveness of his messages about the existential threats, in his opinion, that countries like China or North Korea represented for Japan.

This character was perfectly represented in his controversial 2013 visit to the Yasukuni war shrine, which is remembered by China and the two Koreas as a symbol of Japan's imperial military past.

His appearance in Yasukuni was the prelude to what would happen two years later: the declaration of an initiative to obtain the right to collective self-defense, that is, to enable Japan to mobilize troops abroad with the aim of defending itself and Japan. his allies under attack. However, he failed to codify this right in the Japanese constitution, and the issue remains divisive in the country.

As in the military panorama, the results of its economic policy did not reach the expected objectives. After a few years of relative momentum, the country entered a recession again in the spring of 2020, during the first months of the coronavirus pandemic, which Abe took advantage of to cement Japan's international position as an unconditional ally of Taiwan, over which China claims sovereignty. , by acting as a facilitator for the delivery of millions of vaccines.

Abe also cultivated his friendship with then US President Donald Trump. He was the first foreign leader to meet with the new American president after his victory in the 2016 elections and rolled out the red carpet during the president's state visit to Japan in 2019.

The reappearance of his illness, together with the erosion of his public figure after several scandals (such as the arrest of his former Minister of Justice) and criticism of his management of the first months of the pandemic led him to resign in August 2020 and resign to his dream of presiding over the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, finally postponed to 2021.