| Traum | 07-08-2022 01:05 PM |
There is no denying that Abe was a right wing nationalist, and that he was far more right wing than most of his predecessors / successors. I do not agree at all with his historical views on the Imperial Japanese era, and of course the Textbook Reforms will leave a black mark in his legacy. The lens of history will determine whether Abe is judged more for his views and policies on this, or whether his other policies shaped the bigger part of his reputation. Quote:
Originally Posted by GGnoRE
(Post 9069196)
What? No way. Would you feel the same way about Angela Merkel if she tried to whitewash Germany's involvement in the Holocaust despite all the survivors, third-party eye-witness testimonies, and physical evidence of mass war atrocities? Abe and his government have scraped much from school textbooks and have produced mass amnesia about Japan's horrific past in an attempt to whitewash Imperial Japan and Imperial Japan's war crimes. I'd say that deserves to be a pretty big part of Abe's legacy.
| I can't claim to be an expert on the Japanese economy, and most accounts claim Abeconomic was only a mixed success. But IMO, many of critics and commentators are consciously or unconsciously neglecting to mention the white elephant in the room, while only looking at the straight numbers like you have mentioned below. Japan's white elephant is its continually dwindling and aging population. When you look at Japan's economic track record thru Abe's prime ministership under that light, the fact that it was able to achieve what it achieved was already nothing short of incredible. During Abe's tenure, unemployment dropped to record low levels, and Japan saw the longest consecutive economic growth streak in nearly 30 years. In the world that we are living in right now, there is no viable societal - economic model that can maintain continual economy growth despite having a declining and aging population. Quote:
Originally Posted by GGnoRE
(Post 9069196)
Abenomics was a failure as an economic policy and will become a textbook case study for future generations. - "During the years of the Abe administration, real GDP growth averaged only 0.9% (2020 is excluded because of the COVID-19 pandemic). Corresponding figures were 1.0% for the 2001–6 Koizumi administration, 1.5% for the 2009–12 period when the Democratic Party of Japan was in power, and 0.9%, when Prime Ministers Hashimoto Ryūtarō (1996–98) and Obuchi Keizō (1998–2000) were engaged in massive public works spending. And not only does the Abe administration rank the lowest in GDP growth (annualized rate based on quarterly real GDP), personal consumption also recorded negative growth during the Abe years." https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-topi...eal%20economy.
- Not a lot of economic results to show for while borrowing a crushing amount of debt. Abe's government dug themselves into a massive hole and Japan will have to pay the price for it eventually. Under Abenomics, Japan launched an unprecedented asset-buying scheme that have lead to Japanese government now owning half of their own government bond market and 80% of their domestic equity ETFs. Despite all that, demand-driven inflation is still too weak, and is well below rates in other major economies. So while global peers are raising interest rates to tame inflation, Japan's central bank can't wean the country off its milk bottle. Just last week, Apple announced ~20% price increase for iPhone 13 in Japan due to their currency tanking ~20% against the dollar year-to-date. https://www.imore.com/iphone-13-pric...apan-nearly-20
| As an unrelated side note, China is marching down that same path of aging and dwindling population as well, although the pace at which it is moving through that road is far faster than Japan. IMO, the Chinese economy is also a far bigger house of cards than Japan's because of how much it has been hollowed out by corruption and made-up stats. It'll be interesting to watch how China's economic future unfolds over the next 20 - 30 years. | 