Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, 67, succumbed to his injuries on Friday July 8 after being shot at during a meeting in the city of Nara, in the west of the archipelago, where he participated in the senatorial campaign. The land of the rising sun today loses a tutelary figure, the pure product of important families in the modern history of Japan.
This summer Friday will forever be etched in the history of the Japanese archipelago as a dark day, that of the first political assassination of a head of government in Japan since the 1930s.
And not just any Prime Minister, since Shinzō Abe held the record for longevity in this position, having been its second youngest occupant (the youngest since, again, the 1930s).
A true Japanese dynastic saga
By his family ties, by the considerable imprint left during his years in power in Tokyo, and now by his brutal death, Mr. Abe leaves behind him the impression of a life of dynastic saga.
One of his great-grandfathers was an important general in the imperial army, himself the eldest son of a samurai from the domain of Chōshū, present-day Yamaguchi prefecture, the stronghold of the family.
His maternal grandfather, and model in politics, was called Nobusuke Kishi. He was himself head of the Japanese government between 1957 and 1960, like his little brother, the great-uncle Eisaku Satō.
Where we see that Mr. Abe was not the custodian of a single famous surname, but of at least three: Abe, Kishi and Satō, families intertwined by adoption, influential since the 19th century.
Shinzō Abe, heir to Nobusuke Kishi
We still find, in his family tree, Yōsuke Matsuoka, the Minister of Foreign Affairs who announced Japan’s withdrawal from the League of Nations in 1933, and who officiated throughout the war.
It was his family ties that allowed Shinzō Abe to launch himself, first in the private sector, in metal construction, then in politics, in the shadow of his father, son-in-law and heir to Kishi.
The future Prime Minister was born in 1954 in the stronghold of the family, as the second son, but he grew up in Tokyo prefecture, due to the responsibilities of his father Shintarō Abe, from 1957.
Studied in the private sector, then political science at Seikei University and in Los Angeles, at the University of Southern California, in 1978. Returning to the country the following year, he only started in 1982.
The shadow of its leader Jun’ichirō Koizumi
Shinzō Abe finds himself immersed that year in national and international affairs, assisting his father – like the latter before him with his, Kan Abe –, appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Then he accompanied him to the presidency of the general council of the Liberal Democratic Party (PLD), in power almost continuously since 1955, then to the general secretariat of the party, between 1987 and 1989.
It was Shintarō’s death in 1991 that allowed his son to take the light. Shinzō was elected to the House of Representatives in 1993, and joined his faction, the Council for New Politics.
From then on, he was re-elected each time as a deputy, most often very comfortably. A member of the young reformist guard, he served Jun’ichirō Koizumi, in his failures, then in his successes.
North Korean kidnappings: its springboard
From 1997 to 1999, Shinzō Abe led the youth office of the PLD, forming a quartet, the NAIS Council, with three men of his generation: Takumi Nemoto, Nobuteru Ishihara and Yasuhisa Shiozaki.
It was at this time, through his partisan and parliamentary responsibilities, that Mr. Abe specialized, focusing his attention on social affairs or health. Before the turn of the 2000s.
In 2000, he joined Prime Minister Yoshirō Mori’s cabinet as Deputy Secretary General. A position he kept in the cabinet of his successor Jun’ichirō Koizumi, until 2003.
He distinguished himself in 2002, as Tokyo’s chief negotiator in the file of the last five survivors, among the thirteen Japanese kidnapped on the orders of North Korean number one Kim Il-sung between 1977 and 1983.
He organizes the first visit of a Japanese leader to North Korea, in 2002. Mr. Koizumi will express regret for the occupation, against Kim Jong-il’s apologies for the kidnappings of his father.
Mr. Abe obtains the return of the survivors in the process, ripping off Pyongyang in passing by promising that they will return, a point on which Tokyo will sit. He then forges the image of a tough man.
A young Prime Minister for Japan
He became Secretary General of the PLD in 2003, before his 50th birthday, alongside President Jun’ichirō Koizumi, of which he is now the pillar. It asserts itself on issues of security and foreign policy.
From this year, the PLD absorbs the New Conservative Party. Shinzō Abe takes the head of a special cell dedicated to North Korean kidnappings, and takes charge of the internal reforms of the movement.
Under his impetus, among other reforms, the party began to make the search for a national consensus for a new Constitution a top priority, which would be the fight of its life.
The pension reform, coupled with the scandal of the retirements of personalities of the majority, and finally Iraq, weaken the PLD in a historical way. Mr Abe is taking a step back from his side’s defeat in 2004.
He was again propelled to the front the following year, on the occasion of the ultimate epic of his leader, Jun’ichirō Koizumi, who appointed him secretary general of the cabinet in his last government.
So, Shinzō Abe imposes himself as the heir. He ran for the presidency of the PLD on September 1, 2006, and was elected on the 20th, before becoming Prime Minister a few days later, at the age of 52.
Abe, phoenix and falcon of the Japanese archipelago
Shinzō Abe does not last long, for his premiere at Kantei. He must announce his resignation in September 2007, after the departure of relatives accused of embezzlement, and a suicide in his ranks.
He also encountered his first health problems. But after overcoming them, he managed to get re-elected in Yamaguchi in 2009, after an intense field campaign. It is redemption.
His landslide victory gives him the will to impose himself again, while the country is going through the serious crisis generated by the subprimes, and China is asserting itself. Its political orientations are taking shape.
Within the PLD, he pleaded for a reform of education, the reaffirmation of Japanese diplomacy, and the end of pacifism for the Japanese army. It also installs criticism on the timidity of the Bank of Japan.
Japan’s longest prime minister
Supported by his wife Akie, and against his mother’s advice, he launched himself again to the presidency of the party, convinced that this time he could settle permanently at the head of the country. He won in September 2012.
Leader of the opposition, he stands out as the favorite of the early legislative elections, from December 2012, after a pact on the dissolution woven in November with Prime Minister Noda.
Placed under the slogan Put Japan back on its feet, Shinzō Abe’s campaign is tough, it is that of a “hawk” concerned in particular with security issues, nationally and internationally.
Economically, its fight has a name: deflation. His tool? Monetary policy. This will not happen without resistance. He also intends to join the TPP process, subject to conditions.
The rest belongs to the history of the archipelago. Shinzō Abe wins, governs with stability, attracts some titles of nobility in the field of political science, with his famous “Abenomics” in particular.
He is only the second Japanese head of government to have managed to reassert himself throughout the post-war period. And he finally wins the symbolic title of the most lasting Prime Minister in the history of the country.
During his second term, Shinzō Abe even participated, against his will, in the process of succession of the emperor, whose resignation he did not accept, a decision to which he nevertheless complied.