A portrait of former Japanese Prime Minister Abe was placed on the altar of the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo on September 27. ⓒREUTERS On September 27, at 2 pm, Shinzo Abe’s national coat of arms was held at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, Japan. Contrary to the expectations of the Japanese government, all the leaders of the G7 countries did not attend, and more than half of the opinions against the director in Japan were evaluated as ‘their heads of state’ in terms of size and content. At first, the atmosphere wasn’t bad. The tribute to former Prime Minister Abe, who died in an attack during a campaign to support the House of Councilors election on July 8, was heated. As a result, the LDP won a landslide victory (in a survey conducted by the Yomiuri Shimbun on July 11-12, more than 80% of respondents said that the shooting had an effect on their vote). The family heads held on July 12 were not allowed to enter the funeral home, but people from the provinces came from the provinces to say hello to them from afar. The student’s ‘deep condolences and respect’ continued to spread through the air. It was an atmosphere of concern even about ‘Abe’s deification’. On July 14, Prime Minister Kishida announced that he would observe the director general in the fall in honor of former Prime Minister Abe’s achievements (longest tenure, political achievements at home and abroad, evaluation of the international community, etc.). From the next day, objections were raised as to what the legal basis of the director was. The keyword ‘#Director Abe’ has risen to the real-time trend of SNS. There is no legal basis for Abe’s director-general this time, as the director general’s ordinance was abolished in accordance with the enforcement of the Japanese constitution in 1947. However, the Kishida cabinet, which decided that the director was possible by the Cabinet (National Assembly) decision, pushed the director on July 22. After 1947, there was still a head of state. In 1967, the funeral of former Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida was held as a director, but at that time, the memory of the head of the ‘Empire of Great Japan’ in the past remained. At the time, Prime Minister Eisaku Sato obtained the consent of the opposition on the condition of ‘this time only’. Afterwards, there was a claim to become a director, but in the end, all the funerals of the other prime ministers were the ‘joint hall’ hosted by the cabinet and the Liberal Democratic Party or the ‘LDP leader’. The national coat of arms is a ceremony to commemorate a person who has made a significant contribution to the country or society with state funds. For that to happen, the majority of the people would have to agree with the director first, but in the case of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was highly regarded as a politician even in Japan, public opinion that it was unreasonable gained strength. When he said that he would hold a funeral as a director, criticism began to seep in, such as, “What kind of director is it with a large amount of blood?” and “Why Abe?” Most of the media opposed the director through columns and editorials. In early August, citizens filed an injunction with the Tokyo, Yokohama and Saitama district courts against the freedom of thought and conscience against the implementation of Prime Minister Abe and the ban on government spending. The opposition party demanded the Prime Minister’s attendance at the National Assembly, saying that if the state-led director is a director, the consent and explanation of the National Assembly is of course necessary. The Unification Church and Abe-LDP connection scandal On September 27, 2022, on the day of former Prime Minister Abe’s director-general, a rally was held in Tokyo, Japan, to oppose Abe. ⓒEPA As time went on, the public opinion against the director grew stronger, and Abe became a mere illusory director. Prime Minister Kishida, who responded to a press conference after the reshuffle on August 10, said that the director-general was “a ceremony in which the whole country expresses respect and condolences to the deceased.” Prime Minister Kishida, who could no longer ignore the demands of the National Assembly and attended the National Assembly on September 8, failed to properly explain the justification of the director. Instead, Prime Minister Kishida said that he would not force the public to express condolences such as silence, early hoisting, and school closure, as opposed to the opinion that expressing condolences as the head of state would infringe upon the people’s freedom of thought and belief. At the funeral of former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone in 2020, it was the joint head of the government and the LDP, so the government could ask the local government and the education committee to express their condolences. This time, although he was a higher-ranking director, the government’s response that he did not ask for Cho’s expression was poor. The ‘Director Preparation Secretariat’ installed in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on September 14 answered the question of the opposition party’s National Assembly, saying that this director was ‘a ceremony to pay homage and condolences to the deceased’. Even the word ‘the whole country’ disappeared from the response of the Japanese government. Opponents of the government’s attitude toward such an attitude criticized the government, saying, “If that’s the case, why do you insist on holding the head of the country?” while those in favor criticized the government, saying, “It would be better for the joint leader of the Liberal Democratic Party to make concessions and insult former Prime Minister Abe like that.” Opposition to former Prime Minister Abe’s director-general was largely driven by suspicions about the connection between the former Unification Church (Family Federation for World Peace and Unification), former Prime Minister Abe and the LDP. As it became clear that Abe’s assassination was due to his grudge against the Unification Church, the “secret relationship” between Abe and the LDP began to be uncovered one by one. In the end, the public opinion against the director, which stood at 40-50% in July and August last year, exceeded half in September. Even in the conservative newspaper Nikkei and Sankei Shimbun surveys, 60% of respondents opposed the director. Attention was focused on who the hell decided the chief. Of course, Prime Minister Kishida said that he had chosen the head of state for his highest formality. However, there was an article that said, ‘The LDP Vice-President Taro Aso and a person named Eitaro Ogawa turned Kishida, who initially thought of the LDP joint leader, to turn.’ Ogawa is one of the writers of the far-right monthly magazine Hanada, which is famous for ‘Hate Korea (hate Korea) and hate China (Hate China)’. He also defended former Prime Minister Abe by writing a book titled “The Thorough Inspection of the Moritomo Kake Gakuen Incident is the Asahi Shimbun’s Largest Postwar Reporting Crime”. After the shooting, he is making claims in defense of the Unification Church. The allegations that he played a major role in linking Abe and the Unification Church are becoming true. In the end, it is said that the Prime Minister, Kishida, accepted the advice of Aso and Ogawa, who said, ‘If a decision is not made quickly, the conservatives will leave.’ The Kishida cabinet’s approval rating in July was 52%, up 4 percentage points from June (The Mainichi Shimbun nationwide survey on July 16-17). The public’s enthusiasm for mourning Abe’s death seems to have been reflected in the Cabinet approval rating, albeit slightly. After that, the Cabinet approval rating fell to the 20% level in September due to deepening public opinion against the director and the excommunication of the Unification Church and the Abe-LDP connection. Prime Minister Kishida became prime minister by appealing to ‘listening’ in the LDP election in October last year. The disastrous approval rate of 20% now is not due to anything else. It’s because he didn’t ‘listen’. Conflicts and divisions in Japanese society have deepened over the appointment of former Prime Minister Abe’s director general.
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‘Director Abe’ is over, but the debate continues
