so here we have this is a video from DW
news which is a German uh public
broadcaster and they’re going to give us
a little bit of the background to the
assassination of Shinzo Abe the former
Japanese leader so let’s go ahead and
listen to some of that and then I’ll
give you more information on it Japan’s
former prime minister Shinzo Abe has
died after being shot at a campaign
event police say a 41 year old man has
been arrested in connection with the
shooting ABI was the country’s longest
serving Premiere and was well known for
his strong economic and defense policies
his killing has shocked yet Japan the
nation where Firearms are strictly
regulated and political violence so let
me just comment on that real quick there
were a bunch of uh people who lean right
and who are very pro-gun rights who used
the killing of Shinzo Abe to say look at
that bro obviously uh gun control laws
don’t work that is such a flipping and
glib and stupid response because there’s
only nine gun deaths per year in Japan
nine we have 39 000.
in the U.S
so
you gotta look at the macro statistics
and the macro statistics paint a very
very clear picture but they think
because one person was killed with a gun
they’re like oh well obviously gun
control laws don’t work well I’ll ask
those people would you rather have nine
gun deaths a year or 39 000 gun deaths a
year now by the way I’m not their laws
are super strict like way more strict
than what my preferences are but
you have to call a spade a spade and say
in terms of reducing gun violence oh it
absolutely works I mean there’s a
trade-off and you have no right at all
to a firearm there but it works in terms
of uh from a public safety perspective
anyway I digress this is extremely rare
[Music]
handled to the ground
what appears to be a weapon lying on the
road nearby clearly a makeshift weapon I
mean held together I think with literal
duct tape
people ran to the age of Japan’s former
prime minister as he lay seriously
wounded
he was quickly transferred to helicopter
and flown to hospital
at this point his condition was
described as critical but doctors were
unable to save him
confirming his death the hospital said
the 67 year old had suffered two deep
wounds including to his heart
the area in the city of Nara where this
veteran politician had been giving an
election campaign speech is now a crime
scene
the assassination has shocked Japan a
country where gun violence is rare
this is a dustedly and barbaric Acts
that took place in the midst of an
election
this is the basis of a democracy
and it’s absolutely unforgivable I would
like to use the harshest words to
condemn this act
Shinzo Abe was first elected Prime
Minister of Japan in 2006 making him at
52 the country’s youngest ever premier
it proved short-lived a year later he
quit following a string of party
scandals he was also suffering from
health problems
but he wasn’t gone for long in 2012 he
was back promising to revive Japan’s
flagging economy following years of
deflation
he even put his own name on the plan
urbanomics now by the way he was part of
What’s called the liberal Democratic
party in Japan but understand that the
liberal Democratic party is actually the
conservative party in Japan so I know
it’s so weird all these different
countries have these names for their
political parties and it will be like
contradictory to the actual ideology
that they have and that gets frustrating
and annoying but I just want everybody
to understand that he was a conservative
Abe was also hawkish on defense
expanding Japan’s military role after
years of pacifism yes let me explain
that a little bit there’s there’s um
pacifism in the Japanese Constitution
which was the United States either
helped write it or did write it after
World War II they made Japan a pacifist
Nation
for obvious reasons I mean they Japan
had allied with Nazi Germany they were
an Empire uh they had a viciously
barbaric Empire they you know massacred
Koreans they massacred uh Chinese when
they were an Empire and so they made
pacifism in the Constitution and Shinzo
Abe wanted to roll back the pacifism
that was in there and uh you know build
up the Japanese military
approved a controversial policy and he
failed to formally rewrite the country’s
pacifist Constitution
he did though bolster Japan’s security
alliance with United States
Abe was considered a strong leader on
the world stage but in 2020 he again
resigned citing poor health
it’s more just so everybody understand
it’s more
corruption than you know oh I have
health problems there were political
scandals and he uses the health thing as
an excuse
politics though was always in his blood
right up until the end
for more we can now apprecame so that’s
enough of that now let me give you some
more information on them
so um this is on the guy who killed him
the man accused of assassinating former
Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe had
reportedly told investigators he
targeted Abe because he suspected he had
ties to a religious group that took a
huge donation from his mother law
enforcement sources cited by Kyoto news
had the suspect identified as 41 year
old tetsuya yamagami had first planned
to attack a leader of the unnamed
religious group before settling on Abe
instead yamagami is said to have told
police The Killing had nothing to do
with politics homemade guns and items
thought to be explosives were found
during a search of yamagami’s home on
Friday just hours after he allegedly
used a homemade firearm to gun Abe down
in front of a crowd watching him deliver
a campaign speech in the city of Nara
sources cited by Kyoto news said
yamagami admitted to traveling to
another city a day earlier where Abe had
had also given a campaign speech the
police chief of the perfect prefecture
which is the Japanese it’s a state
basically where the shocking killing
took place admitted on Sat today that
there were problems with the safety
measures taken and took full
responsibility for the lapses that led
to Abe’s death so look I haven’t seen
anything particularly convincing on the
motives of the guy who did this
assassination this is the line that I’ve
heard
um
seems kind of weak if you ask me I saw
some speculation that effectively the
guy who did The Killing was like
part of Japan’s version of Q Anon if you
will
um I don’t know I don’t know none of
this stuff seems particularly convincing
or solid to me in terms of developing a
motive
um more on Shinzo Abe here this is in
The Daily Beast Shinzo Abe was Trump
before Trump except he pulled it off
Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe
died on Thursday in a scene reminiscent
of the Yakuza films he loved so much
that’s of course the Japanese Mafia
gunned down in a crowd by a lone shooter
who didn’t even try to escape the nation
was shocked to learn that he had passed
away when it was reported by state
broadcaster NHK there were many hoping
that he might still pull through and
Nara passerbys began to place flowers on
the site where he was shot some praying
for his safe journey through the spirit
world to his next Incarnation 15 years
before the bloody incident Shinzo Abe
was considered politically finished when
he resigned from office during his first
dentist prime minister he was exhausted
disliked and unable to weather the
tsunami of scandals that surrounded his
cabinet but in 2012 he came back from
the graveyard of failed Prime Ministers
to rule for almost eight years when news
spread that he had been shot twice and
was in critical condition his supporters
hoped that he might be able to pull off
another miracle a physical resurrection
that didn’t happen but the man who
Donald Trump adviser Stephen Bannon
famously praised As Trump before Trump
leaves behind a legacy that may have
forever changed pan he reduced it to a
Perpetual one-party democracy that seems
unlikely to change ABI certainly seems
to have had a Playbook that was similar
to Donald Trump’s he was a populist who
tapped into racism and fears of change
to stoke his base and consolidate power
during his Exile from Power Abe and his
cabinet members allied with anti-korean
and other xenophobic groups Abe drummed
up anti-korean sentiment to bolster his
support and made sure his allies did the
dog whistles while he kept his hands
clean while Trump portrayed immigrants
as the boogeyman threatening Japan I
think that was supposed to say
threatening America Abe latched on to
deep-rooted anti-korean sentiment
towards both the Korean residents of
Japan who stayed after the war and
citizens of South and North Korea former
colonies of Japan he appointed ariko
yamatani a woman closely associated with
the flamingly anti-korean group zaitoku
Kai to be the head of the National
Public Safety commission that oversees
National Police agency the National
Police agency he also embraced uh Nippon
kaiji a conservative Shinto cult and
political Lobby you could aptly compare
his alliance with them to Trump’s
absorption of the Tea Party and other
far-right elements of the Republican
Party
even while out of power the liberal
Democratic party with Abe exerting
influence developed plans for a new
Imperial Constitution for Japan the
removal of the post-war Constitution
which was written with the help of the
American occupation not by them as some
claim now during his political Exile Abe
even briefly became head of an extremist
Think Tank Nihon sosei which is create
Japan made up of ldp liberal Democratic
party lawmakers and other conservative
superstars in May 2012 the organization
released a clip of him Gathering titled
the swearing-in of the revised
Constitution for Japan in which he and
his cronies discussed the ldp’s
substitute Constitution there were some
astonishing moments a former Minister of
Justice nagasi jinen appointed during
Abe’s first term in office told the
crowd the people’s sovereignty basic
human rights and pacifism these three
things date to the post-war regime
imposed by MacArthur General MacArthur
on Japan therefore we have to get rid of
them by making the Constitution our own
Abe loudly applauded this get rid of
basic human rights democracy and wage
Warfare also restore the emperor to
power
in other words make Japan great again
it’s no wonder that years later Steve
Bannon would say that Abe was Trump
before Trump Abe for many
excuse me Abe for many years the most
powerful man in Japan’s ruling political
party the liberal Democratic party in
fact he was campaigning for their
candidates in the coming Upper House
elections when he was shot on Thursday
the ldp was founded in 1955 by Abe’s
grandfather a former war criminal who
also served as prime minister they were
funded with money from Yakuza associate
and CIA operative yoshio Kodama but
starting with his Fall From Grace the
ldp’s popularity sank in 2009 it seemed
like Japan might really change and for
the better for only the second time
since 1955 the perpetually corrupt and
archley conservative liberal Democratic
party was kicked out of power and the
liberal egalitarian feminist leaning
Democratic party of Japan took hold of
The reigns of power it was a revolution
but it didn’t last long the dpj had
risen to power partly with expectations
that they would be cleaner and less
criminal than the ldp but then one
scandal after another implicating the
party’s top management and unsavory ties
with the Yakuza through dirt on their
squeaky clean image the lower house
elections of 2012 were a political
meltdown almost all the opposition
parties including the dpj were decimated
and we know who returned from the
political graveyard ready to rule Japan
with a rusty iron fist Shinzo Abe was
quick to take revenge upon his critics
once back in power labeling the liberal
newspaper Asahi shimbun an enemy of the
people later he would tell Donald Trump
you should handle the New York Times the
way I handled acai
wow he bullied the left-wing media and
whined and dimed the right-wing media
dragging Japan’s press freedom from 11th
in the world to as low as 72nd Place in
in world rankings in 2014 he created a
cabinet Personnel Bureau which exercised
ruthless control of bureaucratic
appointments assuring that any
government worker who didn’t toe the
line or released information
contradicting the government was either
shunned fired or sidelined so very
authoritarian on press freedoms is what
you’re learning here
it worked very effectively and some
high-ranking officials even took it upon
themselves to cover up Abe related
scandals without direct orders to do so
television anchors and pundits that were
too critical of Abe vanished from the
airwaves the world’s largest newspaper
the yomiyuri shimbun smeared the biggest
critic in the education Ministry for
frequenty frequenting sexy bars in
kabukicho so smearing his political
opponents
he had no qualms about using the media
for defamation campaigns and the media
and eager for spoon-fed Scoops was happy
to comply eventually in 2020 the weight
of political scandals and an
investigation into election law
violations by Abe forced him to resign
under the guise of medical issues a few
months later he threw his political
secretary onto the bus and was more or
less exonerated he kept a low profile
for months but couldn’t resist the
Limelight Shinzo Abe failed to change
even one word of Japan’s constitution in
the end but did pass several laws that
are still eating away at it including
article 9 Japan’s Declaration of
pacifism his greatest achievement having
so thoroughly discredited opposition
parties in critical media that Japan
isn’t even reminiscent of a two-party
democracy it’s a one-party democracy
where the media has its tails between
its legs and is likely to stay that way
for decades
so
um
that gives you
um a look into who Shinzo Abe is what
his ideology is and um the background
around that
and then also look it super conservative
guy
um
wanted to be more militaristic make
Japan less pacifist uh hardliner on
immigration
anti-korean anti-chinese authoritarian
when it comes to the Press now that’s
not none of this is to say that homeboys
should have been assassinated of course
not uh but you should understand the
background and who Abe is and again as
far as the motive of the guy who did The
Killing
I still don’t have any answer that I
find uh convincing I told you what’s
been reported but you know I have a
feeling that maybe over time we’ll learn
more or maybe we’ll never learn more but
that’s not I don’t think that’s the full
the full reasoning so by the way we’ll
end on this note
um
as a result of the assassination now
Shinzo Abe’s right-wing party the
liberal Democratic party as it’s called
is even more popular
they surged in the polls after the
assassination so
there you have it
um you know giant political event and um
of course other world leaders have come
out and and uh
offered condolences and Trump said
something about
um Abe being assassinated uh Trump had
played golf with him a number of times
random side point but
anyway there you have it uh momentous
event of a former Japanese leader being
assassinated hey y’all do me a favor and
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watch that video on screen right now
you know you want to
Trump’s Ignorant Comments About Japan Were Bad Even for Him
His needlessly provocative remarks should take everyone’s breath away.
President Trump reserves some of his worst behavior for foreign trips, such as abasing himself before President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in Helsinki a year ago, skipping a ceremony in France last fall to honor American soldiers killed in World War I (too rainy, the White House said) and insulting the mayor of London earlier this month. Yet even by Mr. Trump’s dismal standards, his performance this week before the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, should take everyone’s breath away. More than yet another demonstration of his erratic behavior, this was also an object lesson in the dangers of his context-free hostility to the world beyond the United States.Before arriving in Japan, Mr. Trump had reportedly been musing about withdrawing the United States from the security treaty with Japan signed in 1951 and revised in 1960 — the cornerstone of the alliance between the United States and Japan and a pillar of American foreign policy. On Wednesday, asked about the treaty on Fox News, Mr. Trump sneered, “If Japan is attacked, we will fight World War III.” Then he added: “But if we’re attacked, Japan doesn’t have to help us at all. They can watch it on a Sony television.”
Mr. Trump’s comment demonstrates a strategic cluelessness and historical ignorance that would disqualify a person from even a modest desk job at the State Department.
Though Mr. Trump implied that the security treaty favors Japan, it was largely dictated by the United States. After Imperial Japan surrendered to the Allies in August 1945, ending World War II, the country was placed under an American-led occupation overseen by the domineering Gen. Douglas MacArthur. When that occupation ended in April 1952, Japan had turned away from militarism to embrace ideals of pacifism and democracy. Under Article 9 of a new Constitution that was originally drafted in English at MacArthur’s headquarters, Japan renounced war and pledged never to maintain land, sea or air forces.
Furthermore, Mr. Trump insults his Japanese hosts by overlooking how Japan actually responded when the United States was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. The Japanese public grieved for their American allies after the terrorist attacks, which also killed some Japanese citizens. Japan’s conservative and pro-American prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, took the massacre as an opportunity to reconsider Article 9 and urge his country to shoulder more international responsibilities. His government rammed through an antiterrorism law which enabled Japan’s Self-Defense Force to provide support for the American campaign in Afghanistan, although — because of the country’s official pacifism — without fighting or directly supporting combat operations.
When President George W. Bush invaded Iraq in 2003, Mr. Koizumi was one of his staunchest foreign supporters. Although Japan remained constitutionally forbidden from joining in the invasion or taking a direct military role, Mr. Koizumi’s government passed a special law allowing the Self-Defense Force to help in humanitarian support missions in postwar Iraq. Hundreds of Japanese ground troops in Iraq provided water and medical help, and fixed roads and buildings. One might reasonably fault Mr. Koizumi, as plenty of Japanese do, for going along with Mr. Bush’s disastrous invasion — but it is far harder to blame Japan, as Mr. Trump does, for not standing alongside the United States.
Mr. Trump’s words are also a pointless slap to Japan’s right-wing prime minister, Shinzo Abe, who has ardently sought to cultivate a relationship with Mr. Trump and is trying to mediate a way out of the crisis between the United States and Iran. The 1960 treaty was signed by Mr. Abe’s grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, another prime minister. During a four-day state visit to Japan in May, Mr. Abe flattered Mr. Trump with an extraordinary meeting with Japan’s new emperor, a sumo wrestling match and a lavish state banquet at the Imperial Palace. Yet standing next to Mr. Abe at a news conference in Tokyo, Mr. Trump shrugged off Japanese fears about North Korea’s recent tests of short-range ballistic missiles that could kill thousands of Japanese civilians.
What could Mr. Trump possibly hope to gain from his ignorant, ungrateful and antagonistic behavior? He is unlikely to withdraw from the security treaty. Yet by questioning the alliance with Japan, Mr. Trump encourages North Korea and a rising China to test that bond. His words undercut an essential alliance for no evident reason and erode the stability of a strategic region torn by rivalry.
And we are all so used to it by now that it barely registers.
Trump’s trip to Europe was a complete disaster, and not because he acted like a boorish bully
On his recent visit to Europe, he managed to convey once again his contempt for America’s European allies, and to demonstrate that he places more value on his own personal comfort than on the sacrifices that US soldiers have made in the past.
The trip itself cost millions of taxpayer dollars, yet Trump chose to skip a key ceremony honoring US war dead at Aisne-Marne American Cemetery because it was raining.
The White House offered up a cloud of unconvincing excuses for Trump’s absence, but other world leaders were not deterred by the fear of a few raindrops, and neither were past presidents Obama, Clinton, Bush, or Kennedy back in their day.
By choosing to stay warm and dry in his hotel room while other world leaders acknowledged the heroism of those who fought and died for freedom, Trump gave the concept of “American exceptionalism” a whole new meaning.
And then, instead of marching with other European leaders at a ceremony marking the end of World War I, Trump showed up lateand on his own and even missed the symbolic tolling of a bell marking the 100th anniversary of the 1918 armistice. (In a revealing coincidence, Vladimir Putin arrived on his own as well.)Overall, Trump seemed intent on proving that while the obligations of being president might force him to go on such trips, he doesn’t have to behave himself while he’s there.
For example, Trump is correct to accuse China of engaging in a variety of predatory trade practices and of failing to live up to its World Trade Organization commitments. He is also right when he complains that Europe has neglected its own defenses and relies too much on American protection (though he still seems to think NATO is a club with membership dues)..
He is hardly the first US official to criticize European defense preparations but being unoriginal doesn’t make it wrong.
Trump is also correct in his belief that Europe, Russia, and the United States would be better off if the divisions that presently divide them could be bridged or at least alleviated.
It would be better for Europe if Russia withdrew from Ukraine, stopped trying to intimidate the Baltic states, and stopped murdering former spies in foreign countries.
It would be good for Russia if Western sanctions were lifted and it no longer had to worry about open-ended NATO expansion. And it would be good for the United States if Russia could be pulled away from its increasingly close partnership with China.
For that matter, Trump wasn’t wrong to see North Korea’s nuclear and long-range missile programs as a serious problem that called for creative diplomacy.
The real problem is that Trump has no idea what to do about any of these issues, and he seems incapable of formulating a coherent approach to any of them. To the extent that he does have an actual policy toward Europe, for example, it is the exact opposite of what the United States ought to be doing.
Trump’s broad approach to Europe is one of “divide and rule.” He’s called the European Union a “foe” of the United States, and he has backed a number of the political forces that are now roiling the Continent and threatening the EU’s long-term future.
He endorsed Brexit, expressed his support for Marine Le Pen in France, and thinks well of illiberal leaders like Viktor Orban of Hungary and Andrzej Duda of Poland. Why? Because he thinks dividing Europe into contending national states will allow the larger and more powerful United States to bargain with each European state separately rather than face all of them together, and thus secure better deals for itself.
This approach might be termed “Neanderthal realism.” Playing “divide and rule” is a good idea when dealing with real enemies, but it makes no sense to sow division among countries with whom one has generally friendly relations and close economic ties, and when their collective support might be needed in other contexts.
This approach also runs counter to Trump’s stated desire to reduce US security commitments to Europe and to get Europe to take on greater responsibility for its own defense.
If you really want the United States to get out of the business of protecting Europe, you should also want Europe to be tranquil, capable, prosperous, and united after the United States withdraws. Why? So that Washington doesn’t have to worry about developments there and can focus its attention on other regions, such as Asia.
A Europe roiled by xenophobia, resurgent hyper-nationalism, and persistent internal wrangling wouldn’t be to America’s advantage; it would be just another problem area we’d have to keep an eye on.
Nor would a divided Europe be of much use in addressing any of the other problems on America’s foreign-policy agenda.
Why doesn’t Trump see this? Possibly because he is reflexively relying on the same tactics that brought him to the White House.
Trump’s political success in the United States rests on his skill at picking fights with others, whether it is rival Republican candidates, Democrats of all kinds, the media, Meryl Streep, Jeff Bezos, or anybody else who disagrees with him. His goal is either to bully opponents into backing down or use the spat to rev up his base.It has worked tolerably well here in the United States, because a lot of Americans are still angry or fearful and Trump is both shameless and adept at fueling those emotions. This same instinct leads him to behave abominably abroad: Insulting British Prime Minister Theresa May and London Mayor Sadiq Khan, deriding Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada as “Very dishonest & weak” or derisively tossing Starburst candies to German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a meeting of G-7 leaders... The problem, of course, is that the boorish behavior and conflict-stoking policies tend to backfire on the world stage.
.. Trump’s bullying bluster didn’t win big trade concessions from Canada, Mexico, or South Korea; the shiny “new” trade deals Trump negotiated with them were nearly identical to the old arrangements and in some ways inferior to them.
And given how Trump has treated America’s allies, why would May, Merkel, Macron, Abe, or Trudeau do him (or the United States) any favors? The declining US image abroad compounds this problem, as foreign leaders know their own popularity will suffer if they help Trump in any way.
.. Trump’s personal conduct is not even the biggest problem. Arguably, an even bigger issue is the strategic incoherence of his entire transactional approach. His overarching objective is to try to screw the best possible deal out of every interaction, but this approach instead makes it more difficult for the United States to achieve its most important foreign-policy goals.
.. Threatening trade wars with allies in Europe or Canada makes little sense from a purely economic perspective, for example, and it has made it harder for the United States to address the more serious challenge of China’s trade policies.
If Trump were as worried about China’s trade infractions as he claims to be, he would have lined up Europe, Japan, and other major economic actors and confronted China with a united front. Similarly, pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal and threatening allies with secondary sanctions not only raises doubts about America’s judgment (because the deal was working, and the Europeans know it); it just fuels further resentment at America’s shortsighted bullying.
.. It is increasingly clear that Trump was never the brilliant businessman he claimed to be; he got most of his wealth from his father using various shady tax dodges, and the Trump Organization may have been heavily dependent on illegal activities like money laundering.
.. We should focus less on his personal antics and inadequacies and focus more on his inability to formulate effective policies, even on issues where his instincts are in fact mostly correct.
.. Sadly, the 45th US president possesses a world-class ability to get things wrong, even when he’s right.
Donald Trump and the fish food dump: How early reports got it wrong
It was a story that seemed to reinforce stereotypes of President Donald Trump: On a visit to Japan, he was handed a box of food for a ritual feeding of carp, and after doling out a few spoons’ worth, he got impatient and dumped the rest of the box all at once.
Initial reports of the food dump — like this early video from CNN — suggested that Trump acted on his own. This pushed the late-night Twitterverse and blogosphere into a tizzy. The website Jezebel posted a story headlined, “Big Stupid Baby Dumps Load Of Fish Food On Japanese Koi Pond.”