The Abe Restoration

This book analyzes contemporary Japanese politics, charting the return of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s domestic political dominance and his economic and foreign policy agenda. It is an up-to-date account and critique of the progress, obstacles, and far-reaching consequences of one of the most important periods in recent Japanese history.

---

Shinzo Abe returned to office as Prime Minister of Japan 2012, leading the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) for a second time. This book examines how Abe has sought a restoration of Japanese primacy at three levels: political, through the restoration of the traditional postwar parliamentary dominance of the LDP; economic, through his signature policy known as “Abenomics,” which aims to restore Japan’s economic prosperity and end decades-long deflationary stagnation; and strategic, in which Abe wishes to restore Japan to a prominent role in regional and international security by reinterpreting and potentially altering or even abolishing Article 9 of the constitution, which would allow greater deployment of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. This study argues that Abe has achieved overall political dominance, being re-elected in 2014, and has passed controversial legislation allowing Japan to exercise collective self-defense, but it also contends that Abenomics has yet to lift the country out of its long-running deflationary stagnation.