A year later, Abe, who harbored political ambitions, while holding many positions in the Liberal Democratic Party, used public opinion to "add drama" to himself, and even repeatedly publicly publicized his unfinished ambition to revise the constitution, with great intention of returning to the political arena.
| Author: Liszt
| Editor: Ershui
| Editor: Su Su Laulinger
Recently, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has once again fallen into the whirlpool of public opinion - the exposure of "intimate photos" with men suspected of fraud and "private use of public property" have aroused heated discussion in Japan.
Shinzo Abe (left) hooks up with a man suspected of malfeasance fraud.
Since officially stepping down as prime minister in 2020, Abe has not been silent, but has frequently appeared in the public eye, from corruption scandals to political activities, which have frequently attracted close attention from all sides.
The former Prime Minister of Japan, who has been "retired" for more than a year, does not seem to have faded with his ouster.
Corruption scandals abound
In a photo released on the website of Japan's Nikkan Hyundai magazine on October 28, Abe is smiling and hooking up with a man named Masami Tsubasa, appearing to be intimate.
Anonymous sources who provided the photos told the magazine that one of the photos was taken at the 2019 home of The Book of Arms. I saw Abe in the photo wearing a red T-shirt, and the cartoon character on the clothes was Abane.
Abe (right) Isamoto Yomoto.
According to Japanese media reports, Sachibon is a former director of the "Fairview Club" of Japanese medical institutions. In the past, during the renovation of Itabashi Hospital, affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine of Nihon University, he was suspected of colluding with Tadao Inouchi, a former director of the Japanese University, to defraud 220 million yen (1 yen about 0.05613 yuan) of Japanese university funds. On October 7 of this year, the Tokyo District Prosecutor's Office's Special Search Department arrested the two and prosecuted them on October 27.
According to the Tokyo Shimbun, the scam plan of Tadao Tadashi Tadao Inouchi was implemented since February 2020. It was during Abe's tenure as Prime Minister of Japan. As a result, after the photos of Tsubasa's "intimate contact" with Abe were exposed, they attracted a lot of attention in Japan. Japanese netizens said that "things are clustered by categories, and people are divided into groups", and "where there is corruption, there is Abe".
Insiders also told Nikkan Hyundai that Abe's friendship with Akimoto began with his father's generation. In addition, Tsubaki is also a representative figure of Abe Osaka Prefecture's supporter organization, and has appeared on Abe's private golf course several times to play together. In the previous official prime minister's itinerary, the name of Tsubaki appeared at least 10 times. In private, Abe and Tsubasa, who are closely related, call each other "Jinsansang" and "Shozo". In Japan, only people who are extremely close to each other will call each other that way.
In fact, Tsubasa is not only a supporter of Abe. He strongly supported Former Japanese Deputy Defense Minister Yasuhide Nakayama. From public information alone, it can be found that he donated a total of 22.78 million yen to Nakayama Taixiu. According to Japanese media reports, Nakayama Taishu is also closely related to Abe's younger brother, Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi.
Abe (second from right) plays golf with Tsubaki (second from left).
This is not the first time Abe has been embroiled in such a scandal. As early as his tenure as prime minister, he was caught up in a number of corruption scandals such as Kaji Gakuen, Moritomo Gakuen, and the "Cherry Blossom Viewing Party", and was repeatedly questioned by the Japanese people.
From 2015 to 2019, Abe was suspected of embezzling 8 million yen of public funds to hold a large dinner party on the eve of the "cherry blossom viewing party", suspected of violating the Political Capital Regulations. In January 2020, when the "cherry blossom party" scandal was exposed, Abe initially firmly denied it, insisting at a congressional questioning meeting that the cost of the dinner was entirely borne by the participants, and that he had no knowledge of the relevant income and expenditure.
But as the prosecution conducted an in-depth investigation, Abe rushed out to apologize. At the Standing Committee of the House of Representatives held on December 25, 2020, he bowed and apologized for the "cherry blossom viewing party", saying that he was "deeply reflective" and "sincerely apologized to the public and the National Assembly". In the end, the Japanese procuratorate sentenced Abe not to prosecute him on the grounds that he could not prove that he was not aware of the expenses. However, Hiroyuki Kawakawa, the public first secretary who represented the Abe Support Association, was dealt with through a summary procedure and sentenced to a fine of 1 million yen.
Abe bowed and apologized.
Retirement does not retire from politics
With Kishida Fumio taking office as Prime Minister of Japan, Abe is already a "former prime minister", and the relevant treatment should be adjusted accordingly. However, just a week ago, the Japanese police were exposed to spending a huge amount of money to build a security system for Abe's private home, which raised questions from the outside world that Abe was suspected of "private use of public property".
According to Japanese media reports, two months after Abe left office (November 2020), 30 security guards took shifts 24 hours a day to station near his private home. Some media have photographed that in the section of the road known as "Yamanote Road" near Abe's private residence, vans and other vehicles of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department are on standby 24 hours a day, and there are barricades at the intersection of the road to his private house, and police continue to stand guard from morning to night. Based on the average annual income of Japanese police officers of about 7 million yen, Abe's average annual security cost alone exceeds 200 million yen.
The road leading to Abe's private home was barricaded by the police.
Last year, Abe resigned for "health" and briefly faded from the public eye. Just when people thought he was going to "wash his hands in the golden basin", he began to appear in various public activities, quite active.
On April 15, Abe appeared at a study meeting for young politicians from his faction, the Hosoda faction, to instruct and inspire young politicians in their election campaigns. Half a month later, he participated in a Fuji TV show and expressed his support for then-Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to continue his tenure as president of the Liberal Democratic Party. This is also the first time that Abe has appeared at a public event since he resigned as prime minister.
In addition, Abe has served as an advisor to various groups, including the conservative group "Tradition and Creation Association" and the top adviser to the LDP's headquarters for constitutional revision and promotion, and has held important positions within the LDP.
According to Japanese media reports, in the Abe office in the first member of the House of Representatives, there are frequent appearances of senior incumbent party and government officials, including Yoshihide Suga, Hiroshi Moriyama, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party's Parliamentary Countermeasures Committee, and Yasuaki Yamaguchi, chairman of the Election Countermeasures Committee.
On September 3, after Suga announced that he would not participate in the LDP presidential (party leader) election, former LDP Minister takashi Hayae, who intended to participate in the election, became a popular candidate for the new prime minister. Some public opinion pointed out that behind the high-profile candidacy of Takashi Early Sprout, it is inseparable from Abe's promotion. In Japanese politics, Takashi Sanae has always been considered close to each other because of his similarity with Abe's policy philosophy and high overlap in his network, and they are also close to other bigwigs in the party, including former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori.
Abe (right) with Takashi Sanae.
On September 26, the West Japan Shimbun reported that Abe not only acted as a "military division" for Takaichi Sanae, but also called LDP MPs in the office of the Japanese Diet Building to solicit votes for them, and even threatened the MPs with "severing diplomatic relations" and forced them to vote for Takashi Sanae.
In addition to "taking care" of his work, Abe also offered guidance on the makeup and dress of Sanae Takaichi during public appearances. He noted that increasing media exposure would be more effective than planning a draft policy.
Although Takaichi Sanae lost the presidential election, in order to keep the ruling power in the hands of his own party, Abe still actively "went down" and took to the streets for many consecutive days to solicit votes for Kishida Fumio and play the crisis card. On November 1, the results of the vote were announced, and the coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Komeito Party won the election with 293 seats. Abe and the others finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Frequent "worship of ghosts"
In the past, when he was prime minister, Abe repeatedly made controversial remarks on China, openly denying history and denying that China and Japan had reached a consensus on shelving disputes over the Diaoyu Islands and defending the Yasukuni Shrine issue.
Speaking at a meeting of the Liberal Democratic Party's Niigata Prefectural Branch Federation on March 27, Abe declared that the Asian region, including Japan, had become "the front line of confrontation between China and the United States." "[Japan] needs to commit to foreign and security policy with the awareness and psychological readiness that the Indo-Pacific region has become a frontline," he said. ”
Not only has Abe taken risks on China-related issues, but Abe has not stopped his wrong steps on the Yasukuni Shrine issue, which involves the history of Japan's aggression.
Abe (center) visits the Yasukuni Shrine.
Japan has included the war victims of successive wars of foreign aggression in the "Spirit Seal Book" and enshrined them at the Yasukuni Shrine as "heroic spirits", including 14 World War II Class A war criminals. The Japanese preached this as the "National Shinto", the spiritual pillar of militaristic warfare. During his tenure as Prime Minister of Japan, Abe told the US "Diplomacy" magazine that the Yasukuni Shrine is similar to the Arlington National Cemetery in the United States, so it is okay to visit the shrine.
On December 26, 2013, on the occasion of his first anniversary of his political participation in politics, Abe appeared at the Yasukuni Shrine to pay respects to war criminals. Since then, he has presented "jade string materials" (sacrifice fees) to the Yasukuni Shrine every year on August 15 (the anniversary of Japan's surrender).
After leaving office, Abe still ignored the protests of neighboring countries and visited the Yasukuni Shrine many times.
On September 19, 2020, just three days after Abe officially stepped down, he impatiently claimed on social networking sites that he had gone to the "Yasukuni Shrine" to pay homage to "Yingling about his retirement as prime minister on October 16." A month later, he visited the Yasukuni Shrine again.
Abe posted on social networking sites.
On April 21 of this year, Abe, in the name of the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, once again offered offerings known as "Makoto" to the Yasukuni Shrine and paid homage to the Yasukuni Shrine, where the Spring Festival is being held. After visiting the shrine, he told the media: "In order to pay tribute to the heroic souls who fought for the country and sacrificed their precious lives, they paid homage to the shrine. ”
Six months later, the Yasukuni Shrine held a regular autumn festival, including Abe, former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, and others who went to "worship ghosts" during this period. It is worth noting that Kishida Fumio even offered sacrifices to the Yasukuni Shrine in the name of the "Prime Minister of Japan".
In fact, Abe suddenly resigned last year, and public opinion has long been divided on his intention to resign. Many observers pointed out that at that time, Abe was increasingly unpopular due to various factors such as the Tokyo Olympic Games and the epidemic, and could only directly step down from office, "throwing the pot" to Suga Yoshihide.
A year later, Abe, who harbored political ambitions, while holding many positions in the Liberal Democratic Party, used public opinion to "add drama" to himself, and even repeatedly publicly publicized his unfinished ambition to revise the constitution, with great intention of returning to the political arena. However, his "way back" is not easy. Having been plagued by multiple scandals before, it has now been revealed that he is "small" with fraudsters, which does not bode well for his political prospects.