Second Cabinet (2012–2014) formally appoints Abe to office as prime minister, 2012 On 26 December 2012, Abe was formally elected as prime minister by the Diet, with the support of 328 out of 480 members of the House of Representatives. He and his
second cabinet were sworn in later that day. The new government included LDP heavyweights such as former prime minister Tarō Asō as
deputy prime minister and finance minister,
Yoshihide Suga as chief cabinet secretary and
Akira Amari as economy minister. Abe declared in his 2013 policy speech to the Diet that economic revival and escaping
deflation was "the greatest and urgent issue" facing Japan. His economic strategy, referred to as
Abenomics, consisted of the so-called "three arrows" (an allusion to
an old Japanese story) of policy. The first arrow was monetary expansion aimed at achieving a 2% inflation target, the second a flexible fiscal policy to act as an economic stimulus in the short term, then achieve a budget surplus, and the third a growth strategy focusing on structural reform and private sector investment to achieve long-term growth.
"First Arrow": Monetary policy , whom Abe appointed as Governor of the
Bank of Japan (BOJ) in spring 2013, implemented the "first arrow" monetary policy. At the first CEFP meeting in January 2013, Abe declared that the
Bank of Japan should follow a policy of monetary easing to achieve a target of 2 percent inflation. Abe maintained pressure on the Bank's governor,
Masaaki Shirakawa, who was reluctant to set specific targets, into agreeing to the policy. In February, after Abe publicly speculated that the government could legislate to strip the bank of independence, Shirakawa announced he was leaving office prematurely before his term expired. Abe then appointed
Haruhiko Kuroda as governor, who had previously advocated inflation targets, and who has pursued the government's policies of monetary easing. After the first meeting of the Bank's monetary policy committee after he had taken office in April, Kuroda announced an aggressive program of easing intended to double the money supply and achieve the 2 percent inflation target at "the earliest possible time". Over the first six months of the second Abe Cabinet, the Yen fell from a high of ¥77 to the dollar to ¥101.8, and the
Nikkei 225 rose by 70 percent.
"Second Arrow": Fiscal policy , who also served as deputy prime minister The Abe Cabinet's first budget included a 10.3 trillion yen stimulus package, composed of public works spending, aid for small businesses and investment incentives, that aimed to increase growth by 2 percent. The budget also increased defense spending and manpower while reducing foreign aid. In 2013, Abe decided to proceed with the first stage of the increase in the consumption tax from 5 to 8 percent in April 2014 (with a second stage envisaged raising it to 10 percent in October 2015). The bill to raise the tax had been passed under the previous DPJ government, but the final decision lay with the prime minister. While this was expected to affect economic growth in the quarter following the rise, Abe also announced a 5-trillion yen stimulus package that aimed to mitigate any effects on economic revival. After the increase in April, Japan fell into recession during the second and third quarters of 2014, leading to Abe delaying the second stage of the tax rise until April 2017 and calling a
snap election. In response to the recession, Aso announced that the government would ask the Diet to pass a supplementary budget to fund a further stimulus package worth 2–3 trillion yen. There had been some division within the Abe cabinet between "fiscal hawks", such as Finance Minister Aso, who favored fiscal consolidation through spending cuts and tax increases, and deflationists, such as Abe himself, who argued in favor of a "growth first" policy that prioritizes economic expansion and recovery over budget considerations using the slogan "no fiscal health without economic revitalization". Abe's decision to delay the consumption tax increase in November 2014 and his push for a large fiscal deficit in the 2015 budget without social security cuts was interpreted as a victory for this faction within the LDP. The government did, however, commit to a primary surplus by 2020, and pledged to review its strategy in 2018 if the primary deficit had not fallen to 1 percent of GDP by that time. Economist Yoshizaki Tatsuhiko described the TPP as having the potential to act as the "linchpin of Abe's economic revitalization strategy" by making Japan more competitive through free trade. In February 2015, the Abe government struck a deal to limit the power of the
JA-Zenchu body to supervise and audit Japan's agricultural co-operatives, in a move designed to facilitate TPP negotiations, improve the competitiveness of Japan's farming sector and curtail the influence of the agriculture lobby. Abe revealed the first measures related to the "third arrow" policies in June 2013, which included plans to establish
deregulated economic zones and allow the sale of drugs online, but did not include substantial measures related to the labor market or business reform. These measures were less well-received than the first two arrows had been since Abe took office, with the stock market falling slightly and critics arguing that they lacked detail;
The Economist, for example, judged the announcement a "misfire". Analysts did note, however, that Abe was waiting until after the July
Upper House elections to reveal further details, to avoid an adverse reaction by voters to potentially unpopular reforms. At the annual meeting of the
World Economic Forum (WEF) in
Davos in 2014, Abe announced that he was ready to act as a "
drill bit" to break through the rock of vested interests and "red tape" to achieve structural reforms of the economy. He cited reforms in agriculture, energy and health sectors as evidence of this, and pledged to push forward with the TPP, a Japan–EU trade deal and tax, corporate governance and planning reforms. Abe announced a package of structural reforms in June 2014, that
The Economist described as "less a single arrow than a 1,000-strong bundle" and compared favorably to the 2013 announcement. These new measures included corporate governance reform, the easing of restrictions on hiring foreign staff in special economic zones, liberalizing the health sector, and measures to help foreign and local entrepreneurs. The plans also included a cut in corporation tax to below 30 percent, an expansion of childcare to encourage women to join the workforce, and the loosening of restrictions on overtime. In December 2015, the government announced corporation tax would be reduced to 29.97 percent in 2016, bringing the cut forward one year ahead of schedule. , who served as Abe's economy minister from 2012 to 2016, oversaw the "third arrow" growth strategy and negotiations to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. In September 2013, Abe called for a "society in which all women can shine", setting a target that 30 percent of leadership positions should be held by women by 2020. Abe cited the "womenomics" ideas of
Kathy Matsui that greater participation by women in the workforce, which is relatively low in Japan, especially in leadership roles, could improve Japan's GDP and potentially fertility rates, despite declining population figures. The Abe cabinet introduced measures to expand childcare and legislation to force public and private organizations to publish data on the number of women they employ and what positions they hold. In November 2013, the Abe cabinet passed a bill to liberalize Japan's electricity market by abolishing price controls, breaking up regional monopolies, and separating power transmission from generation by creating a national grid company. This move was partly in response to the
2011 Fukushima disaster, and the bill faced little opposition in the Diet. By March 2015, more than 500 companies had applied to the
Economy Ministry to enter the electricity retail market and the electricity industry was expected to be fully liberalized by 2016, with gas utilities expected to follow suit by 2017. Abe had also said he favored the rebuilding of Japan's nuclear reactors following the Fukushima disaster (though much of the authority to restart nuclear plants lies with local governments) and planned to strengthen relations with the United States.
2013 Upper House election When Abe returned to office, although neither party had controlled the
House of Councillors (the upper house of the Diet) since the 2007 election, the opposition DPJ was the largest party. The governing coalition enjoyed a two-thirds majority in the lower house, allowing it to override the upper house's veto, but this requires a delay of 90 days. This situation, known as the "Twisted Diet", had contributed to political gridlock and the "revolving door" of prime ministers since 2007. Abe's campaign for the 2013 election focused on themes of economic revival, asking voters to give him a stable mandate in both houses to pursue reforms, and took a more moderate tone on defense and constitutional matters. In the
2013 upper house election, the LDP emerged as the largest party with 115 seats (a gain of 31) and the Komeito with 20 (a gain of 1), giving Abe's coalition control of both houses of the Diet, but not the two-thirds majority in the upper house that would allow for constitutional revision. With no national elections due until 2016, this result was described as giving Abe the opportunity of "three golden years" of parliamentary stability in which to implement his policies.
Domestic policy Abe's return to the prime ministership saw a renewed attempt to downplay Japan's wartime atrocities in school textbooks, an issue that had contributed to his earlier downfall. In 2013, Abe supported the creation of the
Top Global University Project program. This is a ten-year program to increase international student attendance in Japanese universities and hire more foreign faculty. There is also funding for selected universities to create English-only undergraduate programs. In 2014, Abe allocated millions of dollars of the fiscal budget to help programs that help single individuals in Japan find potential mates. These programs entitled "Marriage support programs" were started in hopes of
raising Japan's declining birthrate, which was half of what it was six decades prior.
Foreign policy Shortly after taking office Abe signaled a "drastic reshaping" of foreign policy and promised to pursue diplomacy with a global, rather than a regional or bilateral outlook based on "the fundamental values of freedom, democracy, basic human rights, and the rule of law". Abe increased its allies in its international campaign to counter a North Korean nuclear threat. Abe often visited countries such as Singapore, Japan's largest Asian investor and vice-versa. Within weeks of returning to power, the Second Abe cabinet faced the
In Amenas hostage crisis of 2013 in which 10 Japanese citizens were killed. Abe believed that this incident demonstrated the need for the creation of a
National Security Council, and convened a panel to consider its creation soon after the crisis. Abe was unusually active in the field of foreign affairs for a Japanese prime minister, making visits to 49 countries between December 2012 and September 2014, a number that was described as "unprecedented" (by contrast, his immediate two predecessors
Naoto Kan and Yoshihiko Noda visited a combined total of 18 countries between June 2010 and December 2012). This was interpreted as a means to offset poor relations with China and the Koreas by increasing Japan's profile on the world stage and improving bilateral ties with other countries in the region. Southeast Asian nations, Australia, and India were significant and frequent destinations for Abe, who visited all 10
ASEAN countries in his first year in office. The diplomatic tours also functioned as another element of Abenomics by promoting Japan to the international business community and opening up avenues for trade, energy, and defense procurement deals (for example, business executives often travel with Abe on these visits). In September 2013, Abe intervened to aid
Tokyo's bid to host the
2020 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, giving a speech in English at the
IOC session in Buenos Aires, in which he extolled the role of sport in Japan and sought to reassure the committee that any ongoing issues with the
Fukushima plant were under control. After the bid was successful, Abe sought to portray the games as symbolic of his Abenomics economic revitalization programme, saying, "I want to make the Olympics a trigger for sweeping away 15 years of deflation and economic decline." Abe's foreign policy moved Japan away from its traditional focus on the "big three" bilateral relationships with the United States, China, and South Korea, and sought to increase Japan's international profile by expanding ties with
NATO, the
European Union, and other organizations beyond the Asia-Pacific region. Abe concluded the
Japan–Australia Economic Partnership Agreement with Australia's
Abbott government in 2014 and addressed a joint sitting of the
Australian Parliament in July. He was the first Japanese PM to address the Australian parliament. In January 2014, Abe became the first Japanese leader to attend India's
Republic Day Parade in Delhi as
chief guest, during a three-day visit where he and Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh agreed to increase co-operation over economic, defense and security issues and signed trade agreements related to energy, tourism and telecoms. Relations between Japan and its immediate neighbors, China and South Korea, remained poor after Abe's return to office. While he declared that the "doors are always open on my side", no bilateral meetings between Abe and Chinese leadership took place for the first 23 months of his second term. Neither did Abe hold any meetings with President
Park Geun-hye of South Korea during his 2012 to 2014 term of office. Both countries criticized Abe's
visit to the Yasukuni Shrine in December 2013, with the Chinese Foreign Minister describing the action as moving Japan in an "extremely dangerous" direction. In addition China continued to criticize Abe's defense reform policies, warning that Japan should not abandon its post-war policy of pacifism. Abe's speech at the WEF in 2014 was interpreted as a criticism of Chinese foreign and defense policy when he said that "the dividends of growth in Asia must not be wasted on military expansion" and called for greater preservation of the
freedom of the seas under the
rule of law, although he did not specifically refer to any one country during his remarks. In November 2014, Abe met Chinese leader
Xi Jinping at the
APEC meeting in Beijing for the first time since either had taken office, after a photocall that was described as "awkward" by the press. Abe later told reporters that during the meeting he suggested establishing a hotline between Tokyo and Beijing to help resolve any maritime clashes and that the "first step" had been taken to improve relations.
Defense and security policy Abe tried to centralize security policy in the Prime Minister's office by creating the
National Security Council to better coordinate national security policy, and by ordering the first National Security Strategy in Japan's history. Based upon the
American body of the same name, the law to create the NSC was passed in November 2013 and began operating the following month when Abe appointed
Shotaro Yachi as Japan's first National Security Advisor. In December 2013, Abe announced a five-year plan of military expansion. He described this as "proactive pacificism", with the goal of making Japan a more "normal" country, able to defend itself. In the same month, the Diet passed the Abe cabinet's
State Secrecy Law, which took effect in December 2014. The law expanded the scope for the government to designate what information constitutes a state secret and increased penalties for bureaucrats and journalists who leak such information to up to 10 years in prison and a 10-million-yen fine. The passage of the law proved controversial, with thousands protesting the bill in Tokyo and the cabinet's approval rating falling below 50 percent for the first time in some polls. Detractors argued that the law was ambiguous and therefore gave the government too much freedom to decide which information to classify, that it could curtail freedom of the press, and that the cabinet had rushed the legislation without including any corresponding freedom of information guarantees. Abe argued that the law was necessary and applied only in cases of national security, diplomacy, public safety and counter-terrorism, saying, "If the law prevents films from being made, or weakens freedom of the press, I'll resign." However he did concede that, in retrospect, the government should have explained the details of the bill more carefully to the public. In July 2014, the Abe cabinet decided to reinterpret
Japan's constitution to allow for the right of "Collective Self-Defense". This would allow the
Self Defense Forces to come to the aid of, and defend, an ally under attack, whereas the previous interpretation of the constitution was strictly pacifist and allowed for the force to be used only in absolute self-defence. The decision was supported by the United States, which has argued for greater scope for action by Japan as a regional ally, and led to a revision of the US-Japan defense cooperation guidelines in 2015.
2014 cabinet reshuffle The cabinet inaugurated in December 2012 was the longest-serving and most stable in post-war Japanese history, lasting 617 days without a change in personnel until Abe conducted a reshuffle in September 2014, with the stated aim of promoting more women into ministerial posts. The reshuffled cabinet tied the record of five women ministers set by the first Koizumi cabinet. Most key figures, such as Deputy Prime Minister Aso and Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga, were kept in their posts although Abe moved Justice Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki out of the cabinet to become Secretary-General of the LDP. However, on 20 October two of the women promoted in the reshuffle, Justice Minister
Midori Matsushima and Trade Minister
Yūko Obuchi, were forced to resign in separate election finance scandals. Abe told the press, "As prime minister, I bear full responsibility for having appointed them, and I apologize deeply to the people of Japan."
2014 general election , 2014 In November 2014, while Abe was attending the APEC forum meeting in China and the
G20 Summit in Australia, rumors began appearing in the press that he was planning to call a snap election in the event that he decided to delay the second stage of the consumption tax increase. It was speculated that Abe planned to do this to "reset" Diet business after it had become gridlocked due to the fallout from ministerial resignations in October, or because the political situation would be less favorable to re-election in 2015 and 2016. On 17 November, GDP figures were released that showed Japan had fallen into recession as per the two-quarters of negative growth following the first stage of the consumption tax rise in April. The opposition parties attempted to field a united front in opposition to Abe's policies, but found themselves divided on them. In the
2014 general election, the LDP won 291 seats, a loss of 3, but the
Komeito gained 4 to win 35. Therefore, the governing coalition maintained its two-thirds majority in a slightly reduced lower house of 475.
Third Cabinet (2014–2017) On 24 December 2014, Abe was re-elected to the position of prime minister by the House of Representatives. The only change he made when introducing his
third cabinet was replacing defense minister
Akinori Eto, who was also involved in a political funding controversy, with
Gen Nakatani. In his February policy speech, as the Cabinet weathered a
Moritomo Gakuen school scandal, Abe called upon the new Diet to enact "most drastic reforms since the end of World War II" in the sectors of the economy, agriculture, healthcare and others.
Foreign policy , 2015 On a tour of the Middle East in January 2015, Abe announced that Japan would provide 200 million dollars in non-military assistance to countries fighting against the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant as part of a 2.5-billion-dollar aid package. Shortly after this, ISIL released a video in which a masked figure (identified as Mohammed Emwazi or "
Jihadi John") threatened to kill two Japanese hostages,
Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa, in retaliation for the move unless Abe's government paid 200 million dollars of ransom money. Abe cut short his trip to deal with the crisis, declared that such acts of
terrorism were "unforgivable" and promised to save the hostages while refusing to pay the ransom. The Abe cabinet worked with the Jordanian government to attempt to secure the release of both hostages, after further videos were released by ISIL linking their fate to that of the pilot
Muath al-Kasasbeh, with deputy foreign minister
Yasuhide Nakayama conducting negotiations in
Amman. Both hostages were killed with ISIL releasing news of Yukawa's death on 24 January and Goto's on 31 January. Abe condemned the killings as a "heinous act", declared that Japan would "not give in to terrorism" and pledged to work with the international community to bring the killers to justice. There was some criticism of Abe for his move to pledge aid against ISIL while they were holding Japanese citizens hostage, but polls showed support for his administration increasing in the aftermath of the crisis. He later used the example of the hostage crisis to argue the case for the collective self-defense legislation that his government introduced in the summer of 2015 . In April 2015, Abe addressed a
joint session of the United States Congress, the first Japanese prime minister to do so. In his speech he referred to the Japan–US Alliance as the "Alliance of Hope", promised that Japan would play a more active security and defense role in the alliance and argued that the TPP would bring both economic and security benefits to the Asia-Pacific region. The address served as part of a state visit to the United States, the eighth of the Obama Presidency, which President Obama referred to as a "celebration of the ties of friendship" between America and Japan. During the visit, Abe attended a state dinner at the White House. Like his predecessors
Tomiichi Murayama and Junichiro Koizumi, Abe issued a statement commemorating the 70th anniversary of the
end of World War II on 14 August 2015. This statement had been widely anticipated, with some commentators expecting Abe to amend or even refuse to repeat the previous leaders' apologies for Japan's role in the war. In the statement, Abe committed to upholding the previous apologies and expressed "profound grief and eternal, sincere condolences" for the "immeasurable damage and suffering" Japan had caused for "innocent people" during the conflict. He also argued that Japan should not be "predestined to apologize" forever, noting that more than eighty percent of Japanese people alive today were born after the conflict and played no part in it. The governments of both China and South Korea responded with criticism of the statement, but analysts noted that it was muted and restrained in tone, in comparison to the harsher rhetoric than had been employed previously. A representative of the
US National Security Council welcomed the statement and referred to Japan as having been a "model for nations everywhere" in its record on "peace, democracy, and the rule of law" since the war's end. Professor
Gerald Curtis of
Columbia University argued that the statement "probably satisfies no constituency" either in Japan or abroad, but that by repeating the words "aggression", "colonialism", "apology" and "remorse" used in the
Murayama Statement of 1995, it was likely to be enough to improve relations with China and Korea. at the
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership summit, 2017 In Seoul in November 2015, Abe attended the first
China–Japan–South Korea trilateral summit held for three years with Korean president Park Geun-hye and Chinese premier
Li Keqiang. The summits had been suspended in 2012 due to tensions over historical and territorial issues. The leaders agreed to restore the summits as annual events, negotiate a trilateral free trade agreement, and work to check
North Korea's nuclear weapons programme. They also announced that trilateral co-operation had been "completely restored". In December 2015, Abe and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi signed deals in which India agreed to buy
Shinkansen technology from Japan (financed in part by a loan from the Japanese government), and for Japan to be raised to full partner status in the
Malabar naval exercises. Also agreed at the talks was a proposal for Japan to sell non-military nuclear technology to India, to be formally signed once technical details were finalized.
Japan's relations with South Korea improved somewhat during Abe's third term, in the aftermath of Abe's war anniversary statement. Abe and South Korea's president Park Geun-hye held their first bilateral meeting in November 2015, where they agreed to resolve the "
comfort women" dispute, which Park described as the biggest obstacle to closer ties. Abe later telephoned Park. In return, the South Korean government agreed to consider the matter "finally and irreversibly resolved" and work to remove a statue in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul. Both sides agreed to refrain from criticizing each other over the issue in the future. President Park stated that the agreement would be a "new starting point" for relations between the two countries, although both leaders received some domestic criticism: Abe for issuing the apology, and Park for accepting the deal. , 2016 On 27 May 2016, Abe accompanied Barack Obama when he became the first sitting US president to visit
Hiroshima, 71 years after the
US atomic bombing of the city towards the end of World War II. The two paid tribute to the victims of the bombing at the
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, during the visit both leaders pledged to promote
nuclear disarmament. On 27 December 2016, Abe paid a reciprocal visit to
USS Arizona Memorial, Honolulu. The Abe government and the Japanese public mistakenly thought Abe's visit of Honolulu was unprecedented. Abe's visit drew public attention for the first time to the three quiet visits to Honolulu by Japanese prime ministers in 1951, 1956, and 1957. in 2017 with hats reading "Donald & Shinzo, Make Alliance Even Greater" Shortly after Donald Trump had won the
US presidential election, Abe cut short his presence at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit being held in
Lima, Peru, in order to have an informal, impromptu meeting with the then president-elect at the
Trump Tower. After Trump's inauguration, they had a formal meeting at
Mar-a-Lago in
Palm Beach, Florida, at which they discussed security in light of a North Korean threat, with Abe stating that Japan would be more committed to
Japan–United States relations.
Security and defense issues In his April speech to the US Congress, Abe announced that his government would "enact all necessary bills by this coming summer" to expand the Self-Defense Forces' capacity for operations and to give effect to the cabinet's July 2014 decision to reinterpret the constitution in favor of collective self-defense. in 2017To allow for enough time to pass the bills in the face of lengthy opposition scrutiny, the Abe cabinet extended the Diet session by 95 days from June into September, making it the longest in the post-war era. The bills passed the House of Representatives on 16 July with the support of the majority LDP-Komeito coalition. Diet members from the opposition parties walked out of the vote in protest at what they said was the government's move to force the bills through without sufficient debate. Abe countered by arguing that the bills had been debated for "as many as 113 hours" before the vote. A government using its majority to "railroad" controversial bills through the Diet in the face of political and public opposition is a subject of criticism in Japan. As a result of these moves, Abe faced a public backlash, and opinion polls showed that his approval ratings fell into negative figures for the first time since he returned to power in 2012. Many protested outside the Diet buildings, denouncing what was referred to as "war bills" by opponents. The security bills were finally approved by the House of Councillors, 148 votes to 90, and became law on 19 September. In December 2015, the Abe government announced the creation of a new intelligence unit, the , to aid counter-terrorism operations, to be based in the Foreign Ministry but led by the Prime Minister's Office. This was reported as being part of efforts to step up security measures in preparation for the
2016 G7 Summit in
Shima, Mie, and
2020 Olympics in Tokyo. In the same month the cabinet approved Japan's largest-ever defense budget, at 5.1 trillion yen (US$45 billion), for the fiscal year beginning in April 2016. The package included funding intended for the purchase of three
"Global Hawk" drones, six
F-35 fighter jets, and a
Boeing KC-46A midair refueling aircraft.
Re-election as LDP president and "Abenomics 2.0" in Washington, D.C., 2016 In September 2015, Abe was re-elected as president of the LDP in an uncontested election. Following this Abe carried out a cabinet reshuffle, once again keeping the key ministers of
Finance, Economy, Foreign Affairs, and the Chief Cabinet Secretary in post. He also created a new ministerial position for the coordination of policies related to the economy, population decline, and social security reform, which was filled by
Katsunobu Katō. At a press conference after his official re-election as LDP president, Abe announced that the next stage of his administration would focus on what he called "Abenomics 2.0", the aim of which was to tackle issues of
low fertility and an aging population and create a society "in which each and every one of Japan's 100 million citizens can take on active roles". This new policy consisted of targets which Abe referred to as "three new arrows"; to boost Japan's GDP to 600 trillion yen by 2021, to raise the national fertility rate from an average of 1.4 to 1.8 children per woman and stabilize the population at 100 million, and to create a situation where people would not have to leave employment to care for elderly relatives by the mid-2020s. Abe explained that the government would take measures to increase wages, boost consumption, and expand childcare, social security and care services for the elderly to meet these goals. This new iteration of Abenomics was met with some criticism by commentators, who argued that it was not yet clear if the first three arrows had succeeded in lifting Japan out of deflation (inflation was some way below the 2 percent target), that the new arrows were merely presented as targets without the necessary policies to meet them, and that the targets themselves were unrealistic. However, opinion polls during the final months of 2015 showed the Abe cabinet's approval ratings once again climbing into positive figures after the change in emphasis back to economic issues. Abe led the conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks in early October 2015. In December 2015, the two parties making up Abe's governing coalition agreed to introduce a reduced rate of consumption tax for food when the anticipated tax increase from 8 to 10 percent takes place in April 2017. Abe dismissed the chairman of the LDP's tax panel
Takeshi Noda (who opposed the reduction), and appointed
Yoichi Miyazawa, who was more favorable to the policy, as his replacement.
Constitutional revision At the 2016 election to the House of Councillors, the first that allowed Japanese citizens 18 and over to vote, Abe led the LDP–Komeito pact to victory, with the coalition being the largest in the House of Councillors since it was set at 242 seats. The election's results opened the debate on constitutional reform, particularly in amending Article 9 of Japan's pacifist constitution, with pro-revisionist parties gaining the two-thirds majority being necessary for reform, alongside a two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives, which would ultimately lead to a nationwide referendum. Abe remained relatively quiet on the issue for the remainder of the year, but in May 2017, announced that the constitutional reform would be in effect by 2020.
Fourth Cabinet (2017–2020) The
2017 general election was held on 22 October. Prime Minister Abe called the snap election on 25 September, while the
North Korea crisis was prominent in the news media. Abe was expected to retain a majority of seats in the Diet. Abe's ruling coalition took almost a majority of the vote and two-thirds of the seats.
Re-election as LDP president On 20 September 2018, Abe was re-elected as leader of the main ruling Liberal Democratic Party. On 19 November 2019, Abe became Japan's longest-serving prime minister, surpassing the 2,883-day record of
Katsura Tarō. On 24 August 2020, Abe became the longest-serving prime minister in terms of consecutive days in office, surpassing Eisaku Satō's 2,798-day record.
Favoritism scandals In March 2018, it was revealed that the finance ministry (with finance minister Tarō Asō at its head) had falsified documents presented to the parliament in relation to the
Moritomo Gakuen scandal, in order to remove 14 passages implicating Abe. Further accusations arose the same year that Abe had given preferential treatment to his friend Kotarō Kake to open a veterinary department at his school, Kake Gakuen. Abe denied the charges, but support for his administration fell below 30% in the polls, the lowest since his taking power in 2012. The scandal was referred to by some as "Abegate". The scandals, while not damaging his political standing permanently, did little good for his image. In July 2018, Abe's public standing was further hit after he held a drinking party with LDP lawmakers during the peak of the
floods in western Japan. In 2020, Abe came under further criticism for extending the term of top Tokyo prosecutor
Hiromu Kurokawa, who later resigned amid a gambling scandal. Abe's approval rating fell from 40% to 27% during the month of May 2020, largely due to his handling of the Kurokawa situation.
Foreign policy in 2017. Abe supported the
2018 North Korea–United States summit. Abe, however, cautioned President Trump not to compromise on North Korea's missile program and leave Japan exposed to
short-range missiles or relieve pressure on North Korea too soon before complete denuclearization. Reports in 2019 revealed that Abe authorized covering up information about two missing people from Japan living in North Korea. in November 2017. In 2018, Abe paid a formal visit to China, in the hopes of improving foreign relations, where he had several meetings with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Abe astated that he hoped Xi Jinping would visit Japan to cultivate better relations between the two countries. At the
G20 Summit. Abe told Xi it is important for "a free and open Hong Kong to prosper under the 'one country, two systems' policy". Regarding the territorial dispute with Russia, Abe adopted the "two plus alpha" approach, altering the previous governments' position that Habomai, Shikotan, Etorofu and Kunashiri islands be returned to Japan's sovereign. In a 2021 interview, Abe spoke about his negotiation with the Russian president
Vladimir Putin in 2018, also confirming he had requested Fumio Kishida to continue with this approach, to avoid worsening Japan's relations with Russia. in June 2018 in October 2018 in January 2019Japan's relations with South Korea further deteriorated starting from 2018, when, while negotiating a "comfort women" deal with then South Korean president
Moon Jae-in, Abe demanded that South Korea remove statues of comfort women that had been installed in South Korea, the United States, Australia, and Germany. In late 2018, the
Supreme Court of Korea and other high courts ordered several Japanese companies to make compensations to the families of Koreans who were unfairly treated and illegally forced to supply labor for World War II war efforts. The Japanese government protested these decisions, Abe argued that any issues concerning Japan's rule of Korea were previously resolved in the
Treaty on Basic Relations which normalized relations between Japan and South Korea, adding that further requests of reparations meant that South Korea had violated the treaty. In August 2019, Abe's cabinet approved the removal of South Korea from Japan's trade "whitelist"; the subsequent
trade dispute between South Korea and Japan causeing a significant deterioration in
Japan–South Korea relations.
Resignation Abe's colitis relapsed in June 2020 and resulted in his health deteriorating through the summer. Following several hospital visits, Abe announced on 28 August 2020 that he intended to retire as prime minister, citing his inability to carry out the duties of the office while seeking treatment for his condition. During the press conference announcing his retirement, Abe indicated that he would remain in office until
a successor was chosen by the LDP, but declined to endorse any specific successor. Abe expressed regret at being unable to fully accomplish his policy goals due to his early retirement.
Chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga was elected as his successor by the LDP on 14 September 2020 and took office as prime minister on 16 September. In retirement, Abe was not as active as before. He continued to give interviews sporadically, such as the career retrospective on 19 July 2021, he gave to
H.R. McMaster of the
Hoover Institute. ==Assassination==