Ex-PM Abe’s killing a blot on Japan’s history
The shock and disbelief worldwide that greeted the news of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s assassination at a campaign rally in the city of Nara has been palpable. No one would have imagined that the long serving and amiable Abe could be targeted for elimination for any reason.
For decades, Japan has enjoyed vibrant but peaceful politics. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), of which Abe was a member, has been in power almost since its formation in 1955.
It has been a beacon of national stability in a case of if it’s not broken, don’t fix it. Abe’s murder was definitely not a random act of violence in a country that has negligible gun crime. Data from the Sydney School of Public Health at the University of Sydney shows that in 2018, Japan reported only nine deaths from firearms in a country of 125 million people.
Therefore, there wasn’t any concerns to warrant tight security for Abe, which left him exposed. This then brings us to the fact that there could be some deep political undercurrents in the country centering around Abe’s political legacy.
Initial reports indicated that the suspect claimed he killed Abe for his close association with a “specific organisation” he — the suspect — was opposed to. Watching the footage, however, Abe did not seem a person who lived in fear. It was only after he was hit the first time that he took cover.
The fact that the assassination took place during an electioneering period cannot be ignored for its political impact. There is likely a deep political message that the action carried amid the legacy of peace, security and certainty that characterides such periods in Japan. The assassin must have been motivated either by extreme indoctrination or was a hit man hired to achieve a specific ideological objective.
In their opinion titled, “Shinzo Abe: The legacy of Japan’s longest-serving PM”, published on BBC News on Friday, Yuko Kato and Zubaidah Abdul Jalil make a very critical point about the incident: “His shocking death harkens back to images of the violent days in pre-war Japanese politics, when political assassinations were, if not commonplace, not unheard of. A string of political assassinations were part of Japan’s march towards WWII.”
There could be a faction within the LDP desperate to dilute Abe’s influence as it seeks to overturn Japan’s pacifist Constitution which eschews war.
Analysts say that in addition to health reasons, this is the pressure and subsequent legacy that Abe would have been avoiding when he resigned as PM in September, 2020.
Experts are also scanning the geopolitical scene to discern any connection between the assassination and recent Japanese activities, particularly through the country’s close association with the United States .
Could the assassin have been opening a window to a move in the offing that will change Japan’s face from what has held since the Second World War?
Due to the perceived China threat notion being bandied by the US, Japan has been edging towards militarisation. The country has already sent clear signals of its intention to join the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Japan is also a member of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue — the “Asian NATO” — a strategic diplomatic and military alliance comprising the US, Australia and India. There is also the growing Sino-Japan tension in the East China Sea over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands.
Japan will never be the same again after Abe’s murder. It is a sign that things can change for worse in a very short period of time regardless of the hard won stability that the country has enjoyed.
Japan must now determine whether it has careened, or is careening from its long held straight and the narrow path that has made it an ambassador of global peace.
— The writer comments on international affairs.
