Friends in Need

Japanese are really appreciated to the helpings of US forces and citizens in the hard time right after the Great Northeastern Earthquake in 2011. As showed in a proverb “A friend in need is a friend indeed,” both government of Japan and US named the operation “Tomodachi,” the word which meant “friends” in Japanese. To show courtesy, the Japanese often put “o” at the head of a word. So what does “Otomodachi” mean? It’s the ministers of Abe administration who has close relationship with their boss. For Abe, they really are friends in need.

The first man Abe relied on was the Minister of Finance, Taro Aso. Both men have common factors. They are former Prime Ministers, grand sons of former PM, and considered to be born with silver spoons in their mouths. Although their grandfathers, Nobusuke Kishi and Shigeru Yoshida, did not necessarily maintained their good relationship, Abe and Aso are close friends, affiliated to conservative groups in LDP. The Minister of State for the Economic and Fiscal Policy, Akira Amari, is a descendant of a minister in the Old War Age and a son of a LDP legislator. Those three men are said to be celebrities and representatives of elite class of Japanese society.

The Minister of Education, Hakubun Shimomura, the Minister for Disaster Management, Takumi Nemoto, the Minister of the Environment, Nobuteru Ishihara, and the Minister of Economics, Trade and Industry, Toshimitsu Motegi, are close and old friends in LDP community. Abe made a great effort with Shimomura in supporting Jun-ichiro Koizumi to be PM. Nemoto and Ishihara were with Abe as young legislators of specialists on financial crisis in late 1990s. Abe and Motegi are old friends who worked as liaisons among groups in LDP.

The Minister of Internal Affairs, Yoshitaka Shindo, and the Chairman of the National Public Safety Commission, Keiji Furuya, and the Minister of State for Regulatory Reform, Tomomi Inada, are included in hawkish legislators as well as Abe. The Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, and the Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territory Affairs, Ichita Yamamoto, are loyal followers of Abe.

For Abe, those otomodachis are rescuers for him. After the collapse of the first administration, Abe was struggling with his both physical and mental weakness. Before he was confident in his recovery, he decided to run for the president race in LDP and won. The readiness of Abe for PM should not be enough so far. That’s why he needed help form friends.

The closest friend for him over all, however, is former Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yasuhisa Shiozaki, who now is deputy chairman of Policy Research Council. Abe refrained from inviting him in his cabinet to avoid criticisms from opposites, because Shiozaki was the symbol of otomodachi in the first administration. If Abe is successful in regaining political power, he will use Shiozaki for one of the important posts in his administration.