Original link: https://sehseh.substack.com/p/d4c
?The full text is easy to read and share | Abe, each statement: “supporter” or “destroyer” of democracy and peace?
Text / Yang Yifan
Many Taiwanese may be surprised to see the news of the attack on Abe Shinzo: Obviously, the former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is so good, why is the murderer “dissatisfied with Abe” to the extent that he wants to assassinate him? What’s wrong with this murderer?
Since I started in-depth communication with Japanese in 2013, I have gradually discovered that whether it is sociology, economics, philosophy, law, permaculture, cooperative movement and democratic education circles, or Japanese predecessors and friends of ordinary people, although the degree of Differing, but the overall inclination is unhappy with Abe.
I didn’t know Abe very well at first, but I clearly felt that my Japanese interpersonal circle (even if they may not know each other) and the Taiwanese’s stance on Abe are completely different isothermal layers. In Japanese parlance, “anti-Abe” is the “air” that I take for granted in the Japanese stratosphere.
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“Anti-Abe” Reasons
Although I have not done any serious research on Abe, based on the daily conversations I have heard, the main reasons for their anti-Abe can be roughly divided into the following points:
1. Abe’s public attitude towards gender equality is relatively conservative
He opposed the “separation of surnames for husbands and wives” , arguing that it would “disintegrate the family” and advocated that the emperor should only be succeeded by men . In 2006, Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party promoted the revision of Japan’s “Basic Law of Education”, which removed the “cooperative education for men and women” in the nine-year compulsory education, and allowed men and women to be divided into groups, classes, and branch schools to have a new legal basis. Therefore, when it comes to gender equality issues, the Japanese people I know often regard Abe as one of the main obstacles to gender equality in Japan.
2. “Abenomics” worsens the gap between the rich and the poor
Abenomics emphasizes the internationalization of the economy, basically taking the route of strengthening the rules of the ” neoliberal ” game. My Japanese international circles agree that this kind of economic policy is based on the big chaebols as the main body of “saving the economy”, at the expense of the well-being of small and medium-sized enterprises, small farmers and ordinary people.
Overall, after Abe became prime minister for the second time, although Japan’s stock price rose and the overall employment rate increased, many people believe that the gap between the rich and the poor has also widened . The left and right interpret different aspects of the data from different perspectives. No, it’s still debated)—prices are rising, the Engel coefficient is rising, people’s real wages are falling, and SMEs and informal workers are becoming more and more marginalized…
In this context, various statistics show that the Japanese people generally have no sense that life is getting better , and that physical and mental illnesses such as depression are getting worse. The small and medium-sized enterprises even call Abe’s tenure as “the era of big waste.”
3. Neglecting ecological sustainability, and even being regarded as a perverse act
Natural ecological sustainability is not the policy focus of Abe’s tenure as prime minister. If Abe has any policies on the environment, the ones that attract the most attention are probably restarting nuclear power generation, lifting the ban on whaling and withdrawing from international organizations.
4. The hawkish stance will shake Japan’s “peaceful nation”
In 2015, Shinzo Abe strongly passed the ” Security Law ” to expand the authority of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces and enable them to participate in allied military operations) legislation, which was even called the “War Law” by more than half of the Japanese people .
But the Security Law is just a prelude.
He further advocated the revision of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution known as the “Peace Constitution” (providing that Japan permanently renounces the right to use war as a means of resolving international disputes, and abandons military weapons that are more than self-defense functions), and as early as 20 years ago He has shown a positive attitude towards possessing nuclear weapons, and in recent years he has put forward the idea of ”nuclear sharing” with the United States, touching the taboo of many Japanese who were absolutely anti-war after World War II, and the dream of the atomic bombing of World War II and the 311 nuclear disaster.
Although Japanese youth are generally considered to be “indifferent to politics” and the generation gap is serious, in the case of the revision of Article 9 of the Constitution, all generations are unexpectedly united: the pictures of men, women and children participating in the demonstrations on the streets have repeatedly appeared. This is very rare.
In addition, Abe’s visit to the Yasukuni Shrine and his denial of the history of “comfort women” aroused the pain of militarism in World War II, and further deteriorated Japan-China relations and Japan-South Korea relations during his tenure. The South Koreans I know also generally dislike Abe – when they meet mutual Japanese friends, anti-Abe is also often the “air” they take for granted.
Once, a philosophy professor invited me to dinner at an izakaya. As soon as we talked about the history of East Asia, he immediately bowed 90 degrees to me and apologized for the sins committed by the Japanese in World War II and the election of Abe as prime minister in recent years. I told the professor that this was a helpless situation caused by various historical conditions, which I can understand. He interrupted me immediately, maintaining a 90-degree posture and saying: This is absolutely Japan’s responsibility, and it is an unforgivable sin.
However, the Japanese education circle feels more subtle about Abe’s mood.
Abe is said to be the first prime minister to take extra-system and pluralistic education seriously – arguing that learning shouldn’t be a one-sided thing.
In Japan, parents and students who have left the system are called “not attending school”, and Abe clearly stipulated in the new “Study Guidance Essentials” (Editorial: School Curriculum Standards Announced in Japan) that “return to school” should no longer be used. (meaning going back to school) to treat or “correct” these parents and students who are out of the system, and should adopt a “diversified development” attitude to support all Japanese families in finding suitable educational options.
This is an important milestone after a long struggle for Japanese democratic schools and educators who have been isolated from the law for 30 years .
However, the education reform of the Liberal Democratic Party led by Abe has also incorporated “patriotism” into the educational goals stipulated in the law, and made “moral education” a subject.
Some people criticize that such indicators and teaching content presuppose “correct moral standards”, rather than “cultivating spontaneous moral and ethical thinking” – in addition to implanting neoliberal “self-inflicted” values into children’s minds (failures). , being poor because they didn’t work hard enough… etc.), and there is a danger of planting the seeds of militarism restoration, such as denying that the comfort women were persecuted, but went to the front line out of patriotism… and so on.
In the Japanese education circle, many people believe that Abe made education more clearly to serve the country and the market, and in the name of patriotism and responsibility and other morals, to obliterate empathy and care for the disadvantaged.
Obviously they were all “Abe Shinzo/Abe Shinzo/Shinzo Abe”, but they were changed from Japanese to Chinese or English, but what they searched for and heard did not seem to be the same person.
“Abe” is just one of countless microcosms of the growing polarization of global “incommunicability”.
The two bullets, the phrase “dissatisfied with Shinzo Abe”, and the farewell of Shinzo Abe made me feel heavy all day. When I fully observed and realized this burden, I found that it was not only the sudden death of the “most pro-Taiwan ally of Japan”, but also the sadness of why society was “uncommunicable”.
I worry that this “incommunicability” will further intensify society, but I also deeply sympathize with the “difficult” (not just a dilemma) situation faced by Shinzo Abe as the longest-serving Prime Minister after the war.
“Attack on Titan” Dilemma: Will Japan Revise a “Peace Constitution”?
This kind of empathy, I suddenly found that it may be more vivid and three-dimensional to interpret with the elements, structure and settings of the Japanese comic “Attack on Titan” .
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“Attack on Titan” is the work of Japanese manga artist Isayama. Its story is set on a fictional island “Paradis Island”, an “Eldia Empire” surrounded by three huge walls. The Eldians inside the wall believed that they were the last human civilization in the world, and they retreated inside the wall to resist the man-eating giants.
In fact, the ancestors of the Eldians used “giant power” to wage war, slaughter and enslave other peoples in the world, and also promote construction and social progress. Until a hundred years ago, the 145th ruler of Eldia, out of moral guilt, took the people to retreat inside the island walls, signed a “no war pact” with the outside world, and brainwashed the people to forget the world and history outside the walls. Although other ethnic groups were able to break free from suffering and establish political powers, they could not forget the hatred of the past, which laid the fuse for future conflicts between all parties.
After the black ships entered the port , Japan quickly adopted advanced Western knowledge, systems, and technologies for its own use, allowing Japan to go from a backward country to a “Great Japanese Empire” to dominate the Asia-Pacific region. During this period, Japan, in the name of the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”, brutally slaughtered and enslaved all ethnic groups in the Asia-Pacific region, but also greatly improved the infrastructure and living standards of the colonies.
After the war, the international community rejected Japanese imperialism and its atrocities. However, some Japanese fundamentalist groups cling to the ideal of the “Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere” and part of the history of “benefiting Asia” during the colonial period. Dissatisfaction with the situation – this seems to be the attitude of other nations in “Attack on Titan” denying Eldia’s past actions, compared to the self-perception of Eldia’s “restorationists”.
In this context, Abe led the Liberal Democratic Party to forcefully pass the “Security Law” and continued political mobilization, intending to amend the provisions of Article 9 of the Constitution “permanently abandon war” and “not maintain war power” , which may be no less controversial than “Attack”. “The Giants”, the Eldians break the “no-fight contract”.
The Japan that Shinzo Abe took over is like the country of Eldia, which is self-proclaimed on Parady Island in the writings of Isayama. It’s just that Abe must have seen the “world beyond the wall” or “the truth of the world” earlier than the characters in the comics: the old imperial order of the world has leaked, and the geopolitical tension is heating up, and Japan is bound to be unable to stay out of it.
Compared with the turmoil and turmoil that various countries are experiencing, although Japan can be described as a safe and comfortable place to live at the moment, the people generally lack the vision, courage and courage to face “outside the wall”; It appears that the present peace is only temporary. The so-called “peace” may collapse and vanish in an instant due to changes outside the walls at any time.
The starting point of “holding up” or “breaking” the no-fight pact is to stop the killing and protect the people.
For supporters who stick to the no-war contract, those who advocate rescinding the no-war contract are extremists or a source of chaos for social stability; on the contrary, those who wish to rescind the contract think that those who stick to the contract are letting warm water boil frogs and nibble the future of the country. Tumors – As each other became more and more serious, and more and more convinced that they had to get rid of each other.
When such “incommunicability” turns into “use of force” or “civil strife”, the prejudice that the two parties regard each other as “extremists” or “social tumors” just “generates” facts that are consistent with it.
It’s just that Isayama’s theme “cruel world” runs through the whole play, and he also emphasizes the vested interests and hypocrisy of the “no war contract” supporters, which seems to make it easier for people to stand on the protagonist’s side.
Behind the longest prime minister’s term in history, the right-wing attempt to “reserve differences and seek common ground”
Of course, the creation is greatly simplified and dramatized/conflicted after all.
In reality, of course, Abe did not go out of his way to exterminate other races like Allen, the protagonist of “Attack on Titan”. Many Western leaders (but Russia, China, and South Korea probably do not admit it) even rated Abe as “global democracy and One of the most important guardians of peace”.
This is due to the fact that Japan is not like the country of Eldia, which is regarded as a scapegoat by the world, but is originally the main ally of Asia in the capitalist world.
Even in the era of democratic constitutionalism with uncertain regime changes, Shinzo Abe has become the longest-serving prime minister in Japanese history, far higher than the previous prime ministers who had to step down and replace most of them in one or two years. You can see Abe’s political skills. And wisdom, and his mastery of managing “harmonious but different” situations.
Rather than leading social progress, government leadership in a democratic era may be more of a compromise.
Although I generally agree with the reasons why my seniors and friends in Japan and South Korea are dissatisfied with Abe, compared with other government leaders, I see some efforts that may be Abe’s pursuit of “Yamato”.
Although Abenomics has taken the path of neoliberalism, Abe’s vision and strategy of building Japan into a “land of beauty” is another industrial development strategy with “human experience” as its core concern (such as focusing on the development of tourism). and other industries).
This may give Japan more room to develop “texture” and “human taste” than a fully neoliberal society like South Korea.
From the neighbors who rented flats in Japan to the international students I met at events, I have repeatedly encountered South Koreans who fled to Japan from “Hell North Korea”. Because they feel that Japan’s living and working environment, pace, consumption level, etc., are more “living like a person” than South Korea – indeed, most of my senior friends in South Korea are forced by society to form their own. “Micro-society” or “Life-Eco Village”.
In addition, during his tenure in office, Abe initiated local creation and vigorously advocated local autonomy. Although its mode of operation is still referred to as “local version of Abenomics,” it does move in the direction of reducing the concentration of resources in the metropolis and chaebols.
In 2015, Abe’s strong passing of the “Security Law” not only aroused an uproar among the anti-war people in Japan, but also stimulated the sensitive nerves of China and South Korea. However, the international situation at the time was as follows: in 2013, North Korea unilaterally terminated the Korean Armistice Agreement and launched four missiles into the Sea of Japan; in 2014, China failed to fulfill its promise of “true universal suffrage” in Hong Kong, detonating the explosion for more than two months, but with appeal All rejected “Occupy Central Movement/Umbrella Revolution”; since 2013, the Islamic State has been actively waging wars, and its territorial control reached its peak in 2015…
Compared with many western countries, which gradually became aware of the reshuffle of the post-World War II order after the Sino-US trade war in 2018, the anti-extradition movement in Hong Kong in 2019, and the Ukrainian-Russian war in 2022, Abe published “Asia” as early as 2012. The concept of “Asia’s Democratic Security Diamond” advocates that Japan, India, Australia, and the United States are the coordinates to redefine the “Indo-Pacific region/order” with democracy and human rights as the common value, and strengthen regional strategic development and cooperation.
Whether Abe’s line helps to ensure regional security or fuels the tension and confrontation between the United States and China – it is undeniable that Abe has indeed presciently proposed a pragmatic strategy based on “one of many peace lines”, and made it for it. Overcoming difficulties, taking on disputes, and giving life.
Even a kind-hearted, communicative and reconciling character like Armin, a character in Attack on Titan, will eventually have to “get his hands dirty” once he takes on a complex reality that is far greater than himself. All he can do is to constantly question his conscience to avoid losing his original intention after constantly getting his hands dirty.
Instead of “inheriting the legacy”, it is better to learn “sincere communication”
It is said that Shinzo Abe’s motto is “Don’t forget your original heart” and Mencius’ “There is no one who is sincere and unmoved”. Regardless of political friends or enemies, most of them positively commented on Abe’s “gentle”, “sincere” and “generous” personality.
Although Abe’s true medical condition is unclear, if he is a sincere person full of ideals, who does not give up his efforts to deal with the most intriguing and intriguing political arena in society for his ideals, it may explain why he suffered from stomach ulcers in his two terms as prime minister. Deterioration and resign. Just as the protagonists of “Giant” finally silently swallowed all kinds of suffering that went against their hearts, they couldn’t help themselves, and no one could complain.
However, yesterday’s two bullets not only assassinated Abe, but further intensified the tension between supporters and anti-Abe factions.
After a day, many Japanese people have been seen on Twitter swearing to inherit Abe’s “constitutional revision”, “nuclear sharing” and “imperial male succession”, and many Japanese have criticized the media for “deifying” Abe and distorting Abe’s reality On the “truth” that “destroys Japan’s spirit of democracy, equality, and peace” and “deteriorates the well-being of Japanese society and people.” Many netizens in China even celebrated Abe’s death.
Just as how many people in history used the name of “God” to destroy humanity, how many people in the future will use the name of “Abe” to push Japan further into a more serious confrontation?
Rather than taking Abe’s “concrete propositions”, which must be constantly communicated, revised, and reached consensus, as his legacy, his pursuit of the greatest common divisor in a democratic and pluralistic society with “sincerity” is probably the reason for the increasing polarization of the 21st century. Abe left the world’s most important political legacy.
Abe may have tried his best to “harmony but be different”, but he still died because of “incommunicability”, which shows that the government leaders can do only limited in the end. Keeping the heterosphere in constant communication and seeking common ground while reserving differences requires the joint efforts of people around the world.
We are obliged to do so. (Finish)
(This article was originally published on the author’s Facebook , and “Walk the World” is authorized to reprint.)
About the author｜ Yang Yifan (the director of the documentary film “The Reason for Learning”, worked for the Qingxing People’s Symbiosis Culture Think Tank, Miscellaneous School, International Experimental Higher Education Knowledge and Action Alliance, Konrad Adenuaer Foundation “KASpaces Project” in Germany, Japan Comprehensive Human Society, etc. Long-term Educators, researchers and systems thinkers dedicated to researching, designing and cultivating symbiotic, sustainable, healthy and peaceful societies. Personal website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adleryang/ )
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This article is reprinted from: https://sehseh.substack.com/p/d4c
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