Relevance: GS-2: Bilateral Agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.

Key Phrases: Abenomics, Womenic, Proactive Pacifism, Japanese Self-Esteem, Arc of Freedom and Prosperity, QUAD, CEPA, The Five Eyes Alliance;

Context

• The passing of Former Japanese Prime minister Shinzo Abe calls us to reminisce about his contribution to making Japan geopolitically relevant, establishing principles of social justice and rebuilding Indo-Japan ties.

Key Highlights

Rise of Shinzo Abe as a career politician

• He won elections 6 times in his long career.
• He served as a prime minister 3 times
• First time he was elected in 2006 but he resigned in 2007.
• Then he got elected in 20012 and 2014 and served as PM from 2012 till 2020.

Contributions to Japan

Economic Front

• He popularised ‘Abenomics’.
  • This involves a mix of bold quantitative easing, fiscal spending, and structural reforms.
  • This rekindled the growth in initial terms of getting elected.
• He addressed the issues of a shrinking labour force by revising migration and gender policies.
  • He started ‘Womenics’.
    • This involved government’s preferential treatment to the companies as a reward for hiring women.
    • Creation of government-funded daycare centres.
  • These moves helped the Japanese companies to question their deeply entrenched biases.

Security Front

• He increased defence spending and was unapologetic about the need for Japan to enhance its power projection capabilities.
• Under his regime, the Japanese constitution was reinterpreted to allow Japanese soldiers to fight on foreign soil to protect friendly countries.
• He nudged Japanese politicians to embrace Proactive Pacifism
  • His actions were not synonymous with reviving Japanese Militarism but to restore ‘Japanese Self-Esteem’.

Geopolitical Front

• He was the 1st one to have a vision of the Indo-Pacific before the importance of this region became clear on the geostrategic front.
• He increased Japanese significance geopolitically by increasingly forming alliances with like-minded countries.
  • It has reached a level where Japan’s membership in the 5-Eyes alliance is being discussed.
• He balanced ties with the protectionist and transactional US (under Trump Administration).

Contribution to Indo-Japan ties

• Gave a new momentum to Indo-Japan ties
  • He became the 1st Japanese PM to visit India thrice in a single term.
  • Recognition of India as a responsible nuclear power by signing a civil nuclear pact in 2016
    • This represented a shift. As Japan heavily criticised India after the Pokhran II tests in 1998 and maintained US-led sanctions by stopping various developmental loans.
• Joint efforts of Indo-Japan Ties
  • AAGC - Asia Africa Growth Corridor with which India and Japan are taking efforts in building developmental infrastructure in African nations and in South Asian Countries.
  • QUAD was revived in 2017.
• Developmental Loans to India
  • Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor.
  • Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train.
• Vision for India’s position in Indo-Pacific Strategy
  • He regarded India as an important and equal partner in making Indo-Pacific an “Arc of Freedom and Prosperity”.
  • 2 democratic nations with similar world outlooks could work together to evolve Indo-Pacific into an immense network spanning the entirety of the Pacific Ocean, incorporating the US and Australia, where openness and transparency will be inherent in a network to allow people, goods, capital and knowledge to flow freely.
• He was the chief guest on Republic Day of 2014, the 1st Japanese PM to do so.
  • This was significant as Japan practices pacifism and maintains distance from the display of arms and military power.

Source: ORF-Online  Indian Express

Mains Question:

Q. Highlight the importance of (Late) Former PM Shinzo Abe in Indo-Japan ties? Also mention challenges of Indo-Japan ties and suggest a suitable way forward.