Japan After Abe Shinzo: Suga Has Inherited Abe’s “Beautiful Japan”. What Will Happen to It?
Prof. Joseph H. Chung
On August 28, Abe Shinzo resigned from his eight year rule of Japan as prime minister to be succeeded by his former Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, who became the prime minister of Japan on September 16. The world is asking what will happen to Japan under Suga who has inherited the complex and challenging legacies of Abe.
The most important legacy of Abe Shinzo is his dream of making Japan a “Beautiful Country”, which the majority of Japanese people seem to refuse. The beautiful country is what his grandfather Nobusuke Kishi tried to construct and he succeeded. Abe’s beautiful country is founded on racism and the authoritarian governance inherited from the pre-1945 era.
The foundation of such Abe’s beautiful Japan is Shintoism enforced by Bushido. Shintoism makes the emperor a divine God. On the other hand, Bushido requires the people to make the ultimate sacrifice for the emperor. The combination of the two systems of thought has produced double effects. On the one hand, it invites racism. Being the people of living God, emperor, Japanese race is.....
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