Shinzo Abe (Page 3)
If it’s good enough for the country’s elite, we deign to try its surprisingly reasonable offerings.
Here’s how the Prime Minister of Japan going for a drive is different from when you or I do it.
Prime Minister Abe’s bizarre yet awesome appearance at the closing ceremony of the Rio Olympics got many people thinking. Thinking a little too seriously maybe.
C’mon Abe, you can do it! You’ve got nothing to lose… Except maybe your pride.
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Netizens fear Japan may have missed out on capitalizing on one of its hottest current exports.
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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stunned the world at the Rio Olympics closing ceremony with a cosplay performance dressed as Mario.
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the U.N. headquarters in New York on September 28 to discuss advancing negotiations on long-standing territorial disputes between the two countries.
Rather than focusing on politics, however, netizens have been focusing much more on the fact that, having arrived late to the proceedings, Prime Minister Abe performed an adorable little shuffle-jog straight towards the Russian prez. So adorable, in fact, that some Chinese netizens have completely reversed their initial impressions of Prime Minister Abe, and now apparently think he’s the last word in kawaii!
Some of you may have noticed during the royal rumble that ensued in the Japanese Parliament late last week, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe quietly slipped out while members of his party continued to fight back a horde of angry legislators so that they could usher in changes to the way the constitution is understood. At first, I wondered why he would duck out at such a moment, but then I remembered: it’s his biiirthdaaay♪
Yes, on 21 September, Japan’s fearless leader turned 61. Unfortunately his age is really starting to show in his lack computer savvy. We already know the PM has his own Twitter account after Abe revealed that he pays his Twitter fees just like the rest of us. But apparently he still hasn’t grasped how to use the “@” symbol properly when a message of thanks to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi accidentally went to the wrong guy, who also just happened to help develop Twitter.
The above scene of Japanese elected officials climbing on top of each other like extras in a Pearl Jam music video made headlines worldwide much to the country’s chagrin. And it was in this way that Japan has officially reinterpreted its constitution to allow military deployment to other parts of the world for the first time since World War II.
Yes, rather than through persuasive speech and the rational debate that government was designed to produce, the future course of Japan had been steered by underhanded tricks, shoving matches, and even a decoy legislation made of a One Piece advert.
But were these uncivilized tactics motivated by honest passion and the sheer intensity of the situation, or were the elite of Japanese society simply showing their true nature of political impotence? To find out, let’s take a look at how the whole fracas started.
This is no April Fool’s joke: on April 1, a group of anti-Japanese protestors gathered outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul, Korea to rally against Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe addressing the U.S. Congress later this month.
Things started to get out of control when an effigy with Abe’s face was beheaded ISIS-style, and a Japanese imperial flag was sliced to pieces with a knife. The protest is being called “too extreme” even by those sympathetic to their cause.
A video purported to have been made by Islamic State militants showing a man dressed in black standing over two Japanese hostages has been released online. The video addresses both the Japanese government and Japanese public directly and demands a ransom of US$200 million, to be paid in less than 72 hours.
Shinzo Abe’s critics have their knives out on Tuesday: The Japanese prime minister has called a snap election for the country’s lower house.
The decision comes pretty much straight after some dreadful GDP figures for Japan. So there’s been no shortage of people declaring that Abenomics has failed.
Here’s why they’re wrong.
In the shadow of rising tensions in the East China Sea, Japan is holding live fire exercise in the foothills of Mount Fuji until Sunday. Japan has held annual military exercises aimed at protecting its northern territories along its maritime frontier with Russia, although present realities have led to Japan shifting its priorities to island defense.
The exercises, called Fire Power, are aimed at defending outlying Japanese islands from a hypothetical invasion. Fire Power is a first-of-its-kind exercise and follows new national defense guidelines.
Here’s a striking example of how strained the relationship is between South Korea and Japan: The latest survey from Asian Institute for Policy found that among South Koreans, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un scored higher in favorability ratings than Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
If you happened to have been around the West Exit of Shinjuku Station this week you might have seen this poster hanging around. In it we can clearly see a photo of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe done up to look like Charlie Chaplin in the film The Great Dictator. Around him are the words “Take back Japan” and “Prewar.”
On 25 September, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a speech and rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange. His aim was to promote US investment as a part of his economic reform plans known as “Abenomics.”
However, the highlight of the speech came towards the end when he mentioned the heavy metal band Metallica and their hit song Enter Sandman while discussing Japan’s future and the Tokyo Olympics. While this may have seemed perfectly innocent at first, this name-drop may have hurt the PM’s standing in the metal community with previous supporters now wondering if Abe is, in fact, a “poser” – someone who only acts like they know about metal.
Despite most Asian countries being notably fond of Japan, according to the results of a recent public opinion poll carried out by an American research organization, China and Korea have a distinctly poor image of the land of the rising sun, and it appears to be getting worse over time.
On 24 May, members of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet convened to make and official statement concerning long standing rumors swirling around the opposition party. These rumors are regarding the Prime Minister’s Residential Quarters (Sori Daijin Kotei) and the super spooky ghosts that may dwell inside.
Since taking power last September Prime Minister Abe has implied, “I’m not spending the night in that place,” by never spending the night in that place.
Since Shinzo Abe’s election win late last year, a faint hope for some kind of action in the long stagnant government of Japan was kindled. “Perhaps the return of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to power could finally get some gears turning again in the nation?” people thought.
So far the fruit of LDP leadership has been a novel way to filibuster by frequently going potty – which I guess makes it a fig.
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