Abe Shinzo was the most important Japanese leader in the past 50 years, says Kevin Rudd | The Economist
IN THE PAST 50 years, three Japanese leaders have become global leaders in their own right: Nakasone Yasuhiro (in office from 1982-87); Koizumi Junichiro (from 2001-06) and Abe Shinzo (from 2006-07 and 2012-20). Of these, history will view Abe as the most consequential. He transformed Japan’s post-war political identity, foreign policy role and strategic mission. Nowhere has this been more evident than in Abe’s response to the rise of China, whose challenge arguably became the organising principle of his prime ministership.
Abe led the creation of the concept of a “free and open Indo-Pacific”, subsequently adopted as the mantra of both the Trump and Biden administrations. It became a pan-regional vision in support of open societies, open polities and open economies. It was also a strategic alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and its periodic recourse to coercive economic diplomacy against those who earned Beijing’s wrath.
He also championed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a high-quality trade agreement linking America, Japan and ten other significant regional market economies. This was a remarkable feat given Japan’s protectionist tradition. After Donald Trump’s repudiation of the TPP—among the most stupid decisions ever made by any American administration—Abe kept the vision alive by pushing for what would become the CPTPP with the eleven remaining members of the group (while leaving the door open to Washington, should it kick its sudden proclivity for protectionism).