The rising sun?

Japan, a country with a robust and more liberal economy, challenging the militaristic growth of China and the wild aspirations of a guy with bad glasses and a need for a haircut. This is the image that has begun to form under the leadership of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, and hopefully will follow with the recent election of Shinzo Abe as chair of the Liberal Democratic Party in Japan.

On September 26, Abe received 464 votes out of the 702 counted in his party’s elections. He will assume the prime minister position once Koizumi steps down at the end of the month, following a wildly popular term of five years. Koizumi cast his support behind Abe, saying that he “has been closest to me and helped me push through reforms,” according to the public broadcasting group NHK. This shines through as a beacon for Japan to leave behind its legacy of weakness, isolation, and dependency.

Abe is a known nationalist, and follows in the reformist ways of Koizumi. Abe has shown signs of being stronger on international politics, wanting to exert more pressure on North Korea over the abductions of Japanese citizens. Abe also has been visiting, and plans on continuing these visits, at the Yasukuni war memorial shrine, where the Japanese believe their fallen soldiers’ souls to be enshrined. This is a hot-button issue to China and South Korea, because to them it symbolizes a glorification of Japan’s imperialism and the conquest of East Asia in the first half of the 20th Century. He has, however, called for talks with China and South Korea the day after his election. This has been anticipated as a move to help normalize relations with these two countries, and to help put down notions of a militaristic Japan, bent on imperialism.

Abe has, however, also praised the United States and has reaffirmed the ties between Washington and Tokyo. During President Bush’s first phone conversation with Abe as the chair of the LDP, Abe promised President Bush to meet him at the November regional conference. He has also declared the military alliance the US has with Japan as the basis for Japan’s national security. Abe has also said he wants to revise the US-imposed constitution, which stresses pacifism and denies Japan the ability to have a standing army. This, along with the breakup of the Japan Post, was one of Koizumi’s main goals as prime minister. Should Abe be able to revise the constitution, Japan will be able to expand its small Japanese Defense Force and be able to deploy troops abroad.

In addition to nationalism and the building up of a military, Abe is poised to continue his predecessor’s goal of breaking up party politics and big money control in Japan. Abe has said he is committed to further deregulation of industries to foster growth, which is a good thing, considering the stagnation and decline Japan experienced after the real estate bust in the 1980s. Should Abe be able to break up Japan Post, he will have broken up the relationship between Japan’s politicians, bureaucrats, and interest groups. This is so because Japan Post is also the world’s largest bank, having $2.8 trillion in its vaults. This has laid at the heart of corruption and party politics for quite some time, and to break this up would be to stimulate the economy.

All in all, should Abe continue to follow in his predecessor’s ways, Japan has a bright future. Even if Abe is unsuccessful in his revision of the constitution, Japan will be headed on the right path to growth and a more stable future. Hopefully, Abe will have the power and the will to continue on the reforms.