Sanae Takaichi, who was elected president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), will never fulfill her campaign promise to visit Yasukuni Shrine as prime minister. Takaichi's popularity, which had swelled among the party's core conservative base, is likely to plummet. This is because Taro Aso, who was reappointed as vice president, has filled the party's top positions, including Secretary-General and General Affairs Chairman, with his own allies and Aso supporters, exposing Takaichi's far-right patriotism as merely a social ploy influenced by the late Shinzo Abe.
As the reference article below makes clear, the Liberal Democratic Party, formed by a conservative merger in 1955, is not what we would call a modern political party. It was two grassroots, anti-communist Japanese conservative parties, united for the convenience of Wall Street, and have continued to present themselves as a single party. Evidence of this is provided by Shigeru Yoshida, the former leader of the Liberal Party, who disliked the former Democratic Party led by Ichiro Hatoyama and Nobusuke Kishi, and refused to join the LDP for two years. Nevertheless, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, endowed with the unlimited benefits and privileges that come with power, has never collapsed in the 70 years since, even though it has been mired in factional strife. And it is likely to continue to maintain power for a long time to come.
With the Aso faction bringing in Takaichi Sanae, the Komeito Party, wary of the far-right Takaichi, will likely continue to maintain its coalition with the "centrist Aso administration." The Japan Innovation Party and the Democratic Party for the People will likely serve as pawns in expanding the coalition, turning the minority government into a stable majority. Behind the scenes, Wall Street, the center of American power, headed by the Rockefeller Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), is maneuvering. They introduced the single-seat constituency system, and are plotting the establishment of two major conservative parties in Japan.
If you read the excerpt below , you will see that the Liberal Democratic Party is a combination of the pro-American Imperial Court group and US cooperation faction from the prewar and wartime periods, and the anti-American right wing and proponents of war with the US. The former descended from Yoshida Shigeru to Aso Taro, and the latter from Kishi Nobusuke to Abe Shinzo and Takaichi Sanae. The US power center is trying to dispose of the latter. A symbol of this is the dissolution of the Abe faction and the Seiwa Kai, the largest faction in the LDP. In any case, Japan's postwar democracy is on the verge of disappearing into thin air. This is because those in power are the descendants of ultra-nationalists and imperial worshippers from the prewar and wartime periods, people who are not compatible with postwar freedom and liberation. "Prewar Japan" lives on.
■The Aso-Abe duo comes from contrasting backgrounds
Taro Aso was the second son of Okubo Toshimichi, one of the three great figures of the Meiji Restoration, and the son- in-law of Makino Nobuaki, a central figure in the Imperial Court clique. He was also the grandson of Yoshida Shigeru, a diplomat and prime minister . Genro (elder statesman) Saionji Kinmochi , who disliked the presence of fanatical imperial worshippers around the emperor and the Imperial Court, saw Makino as a " moderate supporter of Anglo-American cooperation and with strong liberal tendencies." He served as Minister of the Imperial Household and Minister of the Interior from the 1920s to the early 1930s. Yoshida supported the pro-American policy of his father- in-law Makino and Foreign Minister Shidehara Kijuro from before and during the war , and opposed the outbreak of war against the United States. Toward the end of the war, he was arrested by the military police as a central figure in a group working to end the war .
Shigeru Yoshida, who became the third postwar prime minister in May 1946 under the US occupation, succeeded Kijuro Shidehara, and trained his successor at the Yoshida School, the origin of the mainstream conservative faction of postwar politics, the Kōchikai. Asō, whose mother was Yoshida's daughter and whose father was Asō Tagakichi, a coal mining magnate who became a close ally of Yoshida, entered politics at the age of 39 and became a member of the Kōchikai. His younger sister was Nobuko Mikasanomiya. The Yoshida-Aso family lineage, which is said to have respected Anglo-American liberal politics , is the most trustworthy for the American establishment.
Meanwhile, Shinzo Abe's grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, was imprisoned as a suspected Class A war criminal but released in order to fully cooperate with the US's Cold War and anti-communist policies. Both Kishi and Abe were forced to build close ties with the CIA, whose mission was to obstruct and destroy the expansion of the Soviet bloc through covert operations, the Unification Church cult, and right-wing nationalists. In stark contrast to the orthodox Yoshida and Aso families, who consistently maintained frictionless ties with the US and Britain, they were destined to carry out "dirty work."
However, Aso's career since entering politics in 1979 was far from smooth sailing. In 1999, he left the Kochikai, a group led by Kato Koichi , to help launch the Kono Yohei Group (also known as the Taiyukai) . However, this was a small faction of 11 members, and its leader , Kono , was a pro- China dove , while the majority of its members , led by Aso, were pro-Taiwan hawks , meaning the faction lacked unifying power. In 2006, Aso launched the Ikkokai (Asou faction) as a successor to the Taiyukai, and in the LDP presidential election held in September 2008 following the resignation of Fukuda Yasuo , Aso, as chairman, was elected president of the Liberal Democratic Party.
However, when Aso ran as Abe's successor in the 2007 LDP presidential election, eight factions backed Yasuo Fukuda, forming a siege around Aso, resulting in his widespread rejection. A second siege of Aso threatened to unfold in the 2008 LDP presidential election, after he was elected president. Despite being universally rejected by faction leaders, he defeated the 2007 election , defying the odds and winning 197 votes.
After being elected president in 2008 , Aso's faction steadily expanded its influence, but in the 2009 election that brought power to the Democratic Party, Aso suffered a major defeat, and he resigned as president of the LDP. The faction dwindled to just over 10 members, and support for Aso among LDP lawmakers once again fell.
Abe's reelection as LDP president in September 2012 marked a turning point for Aso. He cooperated with the Takamura faction to support Shinzo Abe in the presidential election , and is said to have been the driving force behind Abe's election victory, despite the initial view that he was at a disadvantage. Aso, whose influence had been criticized for waning with Abe's return to power, suddenly became the most influential figure within the party. The Aso faction also increased its appeal, attracting many new members and becoming an influential faction .
Currently, the party has over 50 members and is competing with the Heiseikai (Mogi faction) for the second-largest position after the Abe faction, the largest faction. The established media reports that Kishida, who leads the fourth faction, the Kochikai faction, won the 2021 LDP presidential election thanks to Aso's strength . However, they never mention the source of that strength.
■ From Deputy Prime Minister to Deputy President: A mysterious personnel change
He served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance for a total of nine years, seven years and eight months under the second Abe administration and one year and one month under the successor , Yoshihide Suga (2020-2021). He was appointed Deputy President of the LDP under the current Kishida Fumio administration (2021-), and appointed his brother-in-law (his wife's younger brother), Shunichi Suzuki, as his successor, Minister of Finance. Over the past decade, he has remained the de facto supreme authority figure, closely aligned with the Prime Minister and LDP President. Even with Aso stepping down as Deputy Prime Minister with no successor in sight, and assuming the post of Deputy President with no predecessor, Japan's established media has never bothered to delve deeply into this mysterious personnel change.
This blog has argued that Abe's return to power was supported by strong US support. The Aso faction, working with the Takamura faction, is said to have been the driving force behind Abe's return to power as LDP president. But how did Aso , who was so unpopular that he was surrounded twice during the LDP presidential elections , suddenly become the most influential figure within the party? It was undoubtedly due to the backing of the US ruling class, including Japan handlers, working behind the scenes. Aso comes from the orthodox Kōchikai faction of the LDP, and is a pro-neoconservative and pro-Taiwan hawk, a trend of the times, making him the perfect partner to handle Abe.
Washington is steering Japanese politics through Aso, creating the somewhat insignificant positions of Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy President, who, unlike the Prime Minister and President, are spared the brunt of public criticism . From this perspective, Aso is an agent with strong ties to Wall Street and the huge financial capitalists of Rockefeller and Morgan, the core of American power, cultivated by his great-grandfather Makino Nobuaki and his Imperial Court group before the war.
[Photo] Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Aso gives a speech on "Abenomics" at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a US think tank considered the command center for Japan (April 2013, Washington)
■ Vice President instructs the Prime Minister
In his first speech as a candidate in 1979, Aso addressed his supporters, addressing them as "all of us." In October 2003, he commented on the homeless: "When the police take homeless people in Shinjuku into custody and put them in a shelter run by Shinjuku Ward Office, they leave, saying, 'The food here is terrible.' They say we live in a time of affluence. Homeless people are also living in an age of diabetes." This statement drew fierce protests from day laborers and homeless support groups across the country, as it was not only untrue but also discriminatory. In July 2013, regarding constitutional reform, he said, "One day, we suddenly realized that the Weimar Constitution had changed and been replaced by the Nazi Constitution. It changed without anyone noticing. Why don't we learn from that method?" His countless outrageous comments, revealing his ignorance and arrogance, are too numerous to mention.
This man, often referred to as the "king of verbal abuse," has been acting as the de facto supreme authority for 10 consecutive years without being hit by any of the scandals like the Moritomo Gakuen and Sakura scandals that plagued Abe. Aso did not persuade Kishida about the state funeral issue; he simply told him to "just get on with it." If Kishida were to abandon his administration, could there be a temporary transfer of power to Aso?
When Aso's instructions came to light, Kishida was reported to have confided to fellow lawmakers and reporters on September 10th , " Some media outlets are writing that it was Aso who first suggested a state funeral, but that's not the case. The moment I heard that former Prime Minister Abe had passed away, I decided to hold a state funeral... It was a rash decision." If he really said this, it must have been because he was shaken by the leak of the phone call information from Aso. There's no way he could have made that decision unilaterally " the moment he heard it."
In Japan, the title of "Deputy Prime Minister" is not an official title written on appointment letters or other documents, and does not actually exist as an official position . Even the LDP's party rules state that the appointment of a "Deputy President" is optional, and that the position does not have any specific, written duties under normal circumstances. This abnormal situation of continuing to give great real power to someone in this nominal position has become the norm.
March 2022. The following article appeared in the Sankei Shimbun.
On the 9th, LDP Vice President Aso Taro met with U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel at party headquarters to exchange views on the situation in Ukraine, which is currently under Russian aggression. After the meeting, Emanuel told reporters, "The world appreciates the unprecedented leadership Japan has shown" regarding Japan's sanctions against Russia.
The U.S. ambassador probably usually meets with Aso behind closed doors, including at the U.S. embassy, but sometimes he meets openly with the vice president at the LDP headquarters, where the press club is located, presumably to suggest to the U.S. government who is the most powerful person in Japan.
Reference articles