Abe Resigns

So amid tons of scandals – too many for me to bother going into here – Shinzo Abe is done with being Prime Minister in Japan. I’ll assume that made the papers back home. It was front page here and still is. They despise the Japanese and watch them closely. Economics makes everything that happens on the island relevant here on the peninsula. Abe will be remembered for controversy. No doubt about that.

One thing I can say that I noticed and liked about the guy was that he didn’t visit the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on national holidays. The Shrine has a memorial to Japanese war heroes, who became war criminals after the surrender and the Tokyo trials that followed the war. “Heroes” and “Criminals” are relative terms that depend on whose side you’re on, who wins, who loses and what happens afterwards.

His predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, made it a point to visit the memorial every holiday without fail. This drove the Koreans and the Chinese crazy, who still feel the Japanese haven’t apologized enough for what they’ve done. It was taken as an insult everywhere but in Japan. Even in Japan, the ritual was questioned and debated.

Abe was also highly controversial, internationally but especially in Japan, for wanting to rewrite the pacifist constitution to allow Japan to mobilize a military program. His argument is that they have a national right to defend their borders, and they would be better able to contribute to international peacekeeping missions.

Since 1945, Japan has relied on a US military occupation for national security. It has been legally against their constitution for the government to use any military aggression to deal with international disputes. It’s pretty much unanimous here in Korea that no one wants to see Japan become a military power.