Shinzo Abe Elected New Japanese PM

Shinzo Abe is now the youngest post-war Prime Minister to be elected in Japan. Prime Minister Abe is a proponent of closer ties with the United States and for revision of Japan's pacifist constitution. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and his cabinet left office together on Tuesday to make way for the new Prime Minister and Cabinet to come into power.



Interesting how a new Prime Minister is being elected at this time that is for much closer ties with the US and less pacifist language in the constitution of their country. Will this be someone we have to watch more closely now and see how he interacts on the global scene and in regards to the War on Terror?

This could be a good thing, a bad thing, or make no difference. I have a feeling that we should be looking at this new government a little more often, because a more aggressive foreign policy could mean a stronger ally in times of war, which we happen to be in.

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In the end all this is is just bad news for China, this guy from what I read does not think Japan should still suffer for what happened during WWII. He is also not as apologetic about what Japan did in China as some his predecessors were, this already isn't going down too well with the Chinese. He wants to revise the constitutions to allow for "offensive" military action and he wants to expand the military as well. Trust me folks if Japan wanted to they could easily increase their capabilities within a very short period of time.

A stronger Japan in the region and a closer alliance will be good for the US as we try and contain China while trying to also quiet a pestering NK. Not to mention that with "failing" US/SK relations we need a much stronger Japan to keep our presence in the PACRIM region. A stronger Japan will also relieve some of our forces and assets from the region.

There is one medium to long term pit fall (for the US) that I could see happening with this guy Abe at the helm but we shall wait and see if that paranoia is justifiable.

More information out now, as I am sure it wasn't as easily available when the announcement was out.

The Asahi Shimbun also accused Abe and Shoichi Nakagawa of censoring a 2001 NHK program concerning 'The Women's International War Crimes Tribunal'. The tribunal is he 'Tribunal' was an international civilian tribunal to adjudicate 'comfort women', military sexual slavery of japanese army, and about 5000 people including 64 casualties attended it from Japan and abroad.
wikipedia

In this book, he claims that Class-A War Criminals who were adjudicated in Tokyo Tribunal after World War II were not war criminals in the eye of domestic law. The Korean and Chinese governments, as well as leading media in Europe and U.S. (such as the Washington Post, New York Times, Time, Newsweek, Spiegel, and The Guardian), have expressed concern about Abe's historical views.
wikipedia

This guy doesn't exactly have a very good track record of working well with reality it seems. There is a good amount of information that puts question marks on this.

Abe, whose grandfather championed the U.S. security alliance as prime minister, intends to increase military and diplomatic cooperation with Washington.
NewsVine

Which would all be fine and dandy, but I'm concerned about:

Koizumi, Japan's longest serving premier in three decades, has opposed Abe's calls to further isolate North Korea and sought unsuccessfully to normalize relations with Pyongyang.

Koizumi flew twice to North Korea, securing the release of five kidnap victims and their families.

....

Abe, a 51-year-old conservative, provoked a furor in neighboring countries in July when he suggested officially pacifist Japan should consider a pre-emptive attack on North Korea if there were an imminent threat.
Yahoo! News

Sounds like this guy may be all on the up and up to take a war on with N. Korea, which also could draw us as a "stronger ally" into the area. This guy seems to be a bit extreme in his approach, somewhat comparable with the leader of the US.

*Edit - Yep, you and I are definitely on the same page with things here WestPoint23*

[edit on 9/26/06 by niteboy82]

Figured he'd end up the PM.

I don;t have much of an opinion on him, but I do like that he wants
to redefine the Japanese constitution, which IMO is one of the worst
constitutions ever created in terms of national safety.

I suppose time willo tell if he's a good Prime Minister or not.

Iori it did seem like he had a lot of support, but he also seems to be slightly on the not-so-good side. Another power into the whole "pre-emptive war" thing could cause problems for the rest of the world, not to mention Japan's allies. He wanted to go into North Korea before he won the election. I remember another president with similar goals on Iraq. Doesn't seem good, imo.

Originally posted by niteboy82
This could be a good thing, a bad thing, or make no difference.

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