Prime Minister Shinzo Abe issued annual
statement on the first day of the year, which was called New Year’s Reflection.
As his business as usual, he glorified progress of Japan after the devastation
of war, degraded previous administration led by Democratic Party of Japan and
urged Japanese people to stand up for his political agenda. In addition, Abe
defined 2017 as seventieth anniversary of the activation of Constitution of
Japan. He stressed future-looking attitude, as if wanting to change an obsolete
provisions in the Constitution.
Abe quoted the words of former Prime
Minister, Hitoshi Ashida, who worried about the future of widows and orphans
after the war. “Amidst the ruins and the extreme poverty, our predecessors
resolutely raised themselves to their feet and created for us who would live in
the future the world’s third-largest economy, renowned around the world as a
free and democratic nation,” told Abe in his New Year’s Reflection.
However, Japanese people are now in a sharp
division between the haves and have-nots. “Who are living today must squarely
confront the many issues facing us and impart the ‘light of hope’ to our
children and grandchildren, who feel unease about the future, as well as to
future generations,” said Abe. His answer was to let all the people be engaged
to his agenda. The society he looks for is “where each person is able to
demonstrate his or her abilities, whether male or female, old or young, a
person with a disability or an intractable illness, or someone who has failed
before.”
Not straightly seeing the standpoint of
Japan in the world, Abe keeps on saying that Japan will shine in the center of
the world. “In the rough seas of rapidly-changing situation, we will hoist the
flag of Proactive Contribution to Peace even higher,” said Abe. It was unclear
whether he was saying about sending troops to anywhere United Nations would
demand.
The future he observes is highly obscure.
He might have denied Constitution of Japan, that he believed to be made by occupying
United Nations Force, when he said that “Our future is not something that is
given to us by others. We Japanese are called upon to have the mettle to carve
out our own future with our own hands.” It sounded as if he did not like
anything made by foreign power in the past.
So, what is he doing this year? “This year,
the Abe Cabinet will together with the Japanese people launch in earnest its
efforts to build a new nation, keeping our eyes firmly fixed on the future, to
2020 and beyond,” insisted Abe. Is he building a new nation? It must not be
Japan.
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