The following is from an article by Seiichi Eto, a member of the House of Councilors, in the October issue of Sound Argument, now on sale, titled "A New "Japanese Morning" Aimed at Full Force.
It is a must-read not only for the Japanese people but also for people worldwide.
The emphasis in the text other than the headline is mine.
Nearly two months have passed since a bullet killed former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on July 8.
Once again, I am reminded of Mr. Abe.
It is deplorable and painful.
When I heard Mr. Akie's address as a mourner at the July 12 funeral service at Zojoji Temple in Shiba Koen, Tokyo, I thought that the two of them had been a good couple despite all the publicity they had received.
Akie-san drew on a passage from Ryukonroku by Shoin Yoshida, a patriot of the end of the Edo period. Ten years old has the spring, summer, fall, and winter of a ten-year-old, twenty years old has the spring, summer, fall, and winter of a twenty-year-old, and fifty years old has the spring, summer, fall, and winter of a fifty-year-old. Our father, Shintaro, collapsed just before becoming prime minister, but I think he had the spring, summer, fall, and winter of a sixty-seven-year-old. My husband, too, had a lot of unfinished business as a politician, but he had his spring, summer, fall, and winter, and finally, winter came. He has planted many seeds, and I am sure they will sprout and bear fruit in time.
I had been reading Ryukonroku since I was a student, so it immediately hit me.
In his obituary for his father, Shintaro, Mr. Abe also wrote that his father must have had his spring, summer, fall, and winter.
Ryukonroku is a posthumous letter written by Shoin to his comrades in the two days leading up to the day before his execution.
I thought that Akie-san, who drew on that book, was a true comrade of Mr. Abe's.
Mr. Abe also referred to Ms. Akie as his "comrade-in-arms," and I think he was right.
As a person, Mr. Abe studied extensively since his junior and senior high school days.
Even in high school, I heard that he debated with his history teacher for about an hour, and the teacher lost.
Mr. Abe is running for the House of Representatives following Shintaro's death, and when he wrote about spring, summer, fall, and winter, Mr. Abe was prepared.
We must break away from the postwar regime.
Otherwise, a new future for Japan will not open up.
Ms. Akie came to the general meeting of the LDP's Seiwa Policy Study Group (Abe Faction) on July 21.
There, she made a speech in which she said that she would entrust her husband's successor to the members of her faction.
In closing, he said, "My husband always said that he wanted to make Japan a country we could be proud of. He also said that he wanted to make Japan a country where children would be happy to have been born. He also said that he wanted Japan to be a country that shines in the world." "It is the faction members who will make my husband's wish come true; I ask for your support," she concluded.
It must be Mr. Abe's wish to entrust the task to the members of his faction.
Hirobumi Ito and Aritomo Yamagata
As Mr. Tsutomu Nishioka introduced in the September issue of this magazine, Mr. Abe said, "Aritomo Yamagata was envious of Hirobumi Ito.
It was two years ago, after the end of the Abe administration, when members of the group of lawmakers that gave birth to the second Abe administration, the Genesis "Japan" group, gathered at Yamagata's former residence, Chinzan-so in Mejiro, Tokyo.
In the Choshu domain, Yoshida Shoin, Kusaka Genzui, Takasugi Shinsaku, Yoshida Toshimaro, and other students of Shoukasonjuku, which Shoin opened, played essential roles in the movement to overthrow the shogunate but were executed or died on the battlefield along the way and were not able to face the Meiji Restoration.
Ito, who survived among his students, said, "When I die, I don't want to die on a tatami mat," In fact, he was assassinated and did not die on a tatami mat.
I had heard that Ito had said this from my grandmother, a foster mother of the Yi family of the Joseon Yi Dynasty, when Ito, the Korean Chief Superintendent, often visited the Yi family.
As one of his students, I was surprised to hear Mr. Abe talk about it, as I knew both the story that Yamagata was envious of Ito and that Ito did not want to die on the tatami when he died.
Because he talks about Hirobumi Ito, Mr. Abe has always been serious and has always done his best to live up to his full potential.
He was prepared to do whatever it took to get through anything that came his way concerning politics.
It was out of his desire to break the postwar regime as soon as possible and create a new country.
Becoming a Group of Action
With this thought in mind, Mr. Abe decided that the title of the policy collection compiled by Sousei, "Japan," in April 2012, would be "New "Morning Japan.
Originally, Shoichi Nakagawa, Takeo Hiranuma, Shinzo Abe, and I were the first members to establish the "True Conservative Policy Study Group.
After Mr. Nakagawa lost the election and subsequently passed away, we decided that a study group was no longer sufficient and that we needed to switch to a name for a group that would take action, so in February of 2010, we became "Creation Japan.
Mr. Abe chose "Creation Japan" of the three candidates and changed the letters' order.
The policy book is eight pages in A4 size. It is written concisely, but it is a policy compiled after two years of study sessions since February 2010, when it became the creation of "Japan," and it is filled with Mr. Abe's thoughts.
Here is the first page.
◇
Rebirth of Japan. A strong Japan, to a new "Morning of Japan
◆Japan is a country with a vast history, traditions, and wonderful people. However, Japan now faces a significant challenge that it must overcome immediately.
◆First, Japan's military and diplomatic environment are drastically changing due to the military rise of its neighbor, China. While it is true that the United States remains the most powerful superpower in the world, its relative power is now undeniable. Second, Japan's role in securing its sovereignty and independence and peace and stability in Asia is increasing.
◆However, if Japan fails to take any action in the face of this reality, it will not only fail to be an independent nation, but it will also fail to survive as a "proud nation. To overcome such a reality, Japan must review the system based on the current Constitution and establish a clear will as a nation.
◆On the other hand, the Japanese economy has faced a series of challenges since the collapse of the bubble economy: the Asian currency crisis, the IT recession, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Lehman shock, and the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Despite these successive difficulties, it is a fact that the Japanese economy has been at a certain standstill during this period.
The biggest reason for this is the prolonged deflation, which requires a political decision to end deflation as soon as possible and rebuild public finances through solid growth.
◆What is needed is the power and will to break through the "old and thick walls" of politics, starting with the "postwar regime. It is no exaggeration to say that this is what is required and what we have been given as our mission to overcome these challenges and usher in a new "morning of Japan" once again.
◆The Great East Japan Earthquake has reminded us of Japan's underlying strength, which we had forgotten, and has restored our confidence and trust in Japan. We will rekindle and mobilize this "strength" to realize a new "Japan of Hope.
◇
Mr. Abe's first administration passed the revised Fundamental Law of Education, and his second administration ended the apologetic diplomacy with the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.
He also tried to revitalize the economy, saying that it could not restore Japan without reviving the Japanese economy.
He put the TPP (Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership) agreement together to protect the free trade system and make Japan a shining nation worldwide.
He strengthened the Japan-U.S. alliance by enacting the Specified Secret Protection Law and security legislation that allows the right of collective self-defense, albeit on a limited basis.
And it launched the "Free and Open Indo-Pacific" (FOIP) by expanding and strengthening the frame of the U.S.-Japan-Australia-India alliance.
In fact, I had been preparing the policy proposal since about the fall of 2003, before I ran for the LDP presidential election in 2012.
I say this now, but when I took this draft to Mr. Abe and told him that we had to strike measures for the business community, he said, "I will take care of that myself.
He said he would take both measures against the business community and the media by himself to win the election.
Those running for president at the time were Shigeru Ishiba, Nobuteru Ishihara, Nobutaka Machimura, and Yoshimasa Hayashi, all of whom were representatives of their respective factions.
When Mr. Abe entered the race, the various factions began to rumble.
Mr. Abe held the upper hand in such a situation, supported by the creative "Japan," a group of young people from across the factions.
Mr. Ishiba seemed to have the most advantage because he was preparing for the presidential election, but I believed that the tide would eventually turn from the Ishiba-Ishihara line.
And Mr. Nobuteru Ishihara did not have a strong campaigner.
I once invited both Mr. Ishiba and Mr. Abe to speak on security and the Constitution.
Mr. Ishiba would talk about constitutional reform, and all he would talk about was perfect constitutional reform.
There is no way he could do that even if he wanted to. If you keep talking about that, it means that you will never do constitutional reform.
It became clear that Mr. Ishiba knew a lot about weapons in terms of security, but he really didn't know anything about security.
In fact, before the meeting at that time, Mr. Ishiba's side had approached me about forming an "Ishiba-Abe coalition" against Ishihara.
But that would mean that Mr. Abe would be in third place.
I thought Mr. Abe would definitely be able to take second place, so I kicked the idea of a second or third-place coalition.
So we asked Mr. Abe to decide once.
About a month before I announced his candidacy, I told Mr. Abe, "You have nothing more to lose. The time has come for you to give your all for your country. I told him, "It is unforgivable for a politician not to stand up in this national crisis." "If you don't stand up when you have to stand up and understand that a national crisis is a national crisis, I don't know what you have done so far," I said.
However, when Mr. Abe's decision, opinions were divided evenly among the founding members of "Creation Japan.
Some said, "It's too early to tell." Many said that if Mr. Abe left here and lost, he would be ruined for life and would be crushed. We had serious discussions.
Even though Japan's crisis has come this far, the economy is declining, and we don't know what will happen.
Someone has to change this trend.
So we said to Mr. Abe, "Well, it's time to make a decision.
Whether or not Mr. Abe had decided at that time, I think he had to some extent.
Yoshihide Suga insisted, "If we don't just get out, there will be no end in sight," but I thought differently.
At that time, we had to win no matter what.
I think Mr. Abe is Japan's savior in that sense.
This article continues.
