Episode 363 - Abe, Part 3

History of Japan

Isaac Meyer

Japan, History, Japanese

4.8 • 744 Ratings

🗓️ 6 November 2020

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week: how did Abe Shinzo get back into the PM's office, why did he not fall flat on his face once again once he did, and what are some of the distinguishing features of his policies? We're covering everything from LDP internal elections to macroeconomic policy to social conservatism, so buckle up -- this is gonna be a fun one.

Show notes here.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This week's episode is brought to you by Audible.
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0:21.9	You can cancel any time and keep the free book or keep going with one of Audible's subscription offers.
0:28.0	Go to audibletrial.com slash Japan to claim your offer.
0:32.1	This week, I'm going to recommend A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki, a novel I'm almost certain I've recommended
0:39.1	before, but even if I have, I'll go ahead and recommend it again. Honestly, it's one of the best things
0:45.2	I think I've ever read, and a genuinely fascinating look at both teenagehood and the theology
0:51.7	of Zen Buddhism. Go to audibletrial.com slash Japan to claim your copy.
1:08.7	Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast, episode 363, ABE, part three.
1:16.6	I was actually in Japan in the leadership to the 2009 lower house elections, one of my first longer-term stays in the country.
1:25.4	And I remember very clearly this feeling of seeming inevitability
1:29.0	about the opposition Democratic Party of Japan's victory. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party,
1:35.3	it seemed, had lost its way. There was no clear vision, post-Koizumi, about what the party was going
1:41.3	to be, and nobody seemed to be able to articulate one.
1:45.8	Indeed, the LDP Prime Minister at the time, Osotaro, barely seemed to be able to articulate
1:51.7	anything without shoving his entire foot in his mouth.
1:55.6	In terms of favorite Osotaro gaffs, I'm hard-pressed to choose between the problem of elder care won't be solved
2:02.3	unless you hurry up and let them die, and his much later statement that constitutional revision
2:08.0	in Japan was best achieved by looking at the example of the Nazi party in Germany, which
2:13.8	after all had managed to revise its constitution very quickly.
2:25.0	What I'm getting at here is that the DPJ victory in 2009 did not feel like the last time the LDP had lost its majority back in the 1990s. The LDP seemed to be scrambling and without ideas
	...

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