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145-630: The Fourth Abe Cabinet governed Japan under the leadership of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe from November 2017 to September 2020. The government is a coalition between the Liberal Democratic Party and the Komeito (which had changed its name from "New Komeito" in the 2012–2014 term) and controls both the upper and lower houses of the National Diet . Following his resignation, the Fourth Abe cabinet

290-477: A bachelor's degree in political science from Seikei University in 1977. From 1978 to 1979, Abe attended the University of Southern California where he studied English as a visiting student. After taking courses in history, international relations, and political science for three semesters, Abe left. Abe is reported to have been an average student. In April 1979, Abe began working for Kobe Steel . He left

435-586: A kamikaze pilot but the war ended before he completed training. Abe's maternal grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi , was the de facto "economic king" of occupied China and Manchukuo , a Japanese puppet state in Northern China established after the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in the lead-up to the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. During the war, Kishi served as Vice Minister of Munitions in

580-527: 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

725-516: A "politician who fights" and previously pledged not to resign. Abe explained that his unpopularity was hindering the passage of an anti-terrorism law, involving among other things Japan's continued military presence in Afghanistan . Party officials also said the embattled prime minister was suffering from poor health. Abe remained in the National Diet following his resignation as prime minister. He

870-448: 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 Autumn 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

1015-455: A 1991 interview about how she was drafted into the "comfort women corps" in 1941: "When I was 17 years old, the Japanese soldiers came along in a truck, beat us [her and a friend], and then dragged us into the back. I was told if I were drafted, I could earn lots of money in a textile factory ... The first day I was raped and the rapes never stopped ... I was born a woman but never lived as

1160-537: A Beautiful Nation ( 美しい国へ , Utsukushii kuni e ) . North Korea criticized this Japanese decision as a breach of a diplomatic promise, and the negotiations were aborted. Abe publicly recognized the need for improved relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC) and, along with Foreign Minister Tarō Asō, sought an eventual summit meeting with PRC paramount leader Hu Jintao . Abe also said that China–Japan relations should not continue to be based on "emotions". Abe

1305-852: A Japanese army compound, and the conditions of the Korean comfort women. Documents were discovered verifying the Japanese Army as the funding agency for purchasing some comfort women. Su Zhiliang, a professor at Shanghai Normal University , examined the Japanese Kwantung Army's records in Manchuria (now Northeast China), which are housed at the Jilin Archives in China. The operations of the Japanese Military Police, who were in charge of overseeing

1450-399: A Shimonoseki mayoral candidate in 1999. Abe was the chief negotiator for the Japanese government on behalf of the families of Japanese abductees taken to North Korea . As a part of the effort, he accompanied Koizumi to meet Kim Jong Il in 2002. He gained national popularity when he demanded that Japanese abductees visiting Japan remain in the country, in defiance of North Korea. Abe

1595-433: A bill to encourage nationalism and a "love for one's country and hometown" among the Japanese youth (specific wording from the revised "Fundamental Law of Education" 教育基本法 , which was revised to include "love of country"). In March 2007, Abe stated that there was no evidence that the Japanese military had forced women into sexual slavery during World War II, which the Japanese government had admitted and apologized for in

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1740-569: A comfort women by the Japanese after she was tricked into becoming a comfort woman. She was lied to and told she was being taken to Tokyo to study there and instead sent to a Japanese military brothel in Flores to be raped. Over 20,000 Indonesian women reported they were raped by Japanese soldiers since 1993 after the Indonesian government asked Indonesian women to report if they were victims of Japanese rape. Each Javanese Indonesian comfort woman trafficked to

1885-504: A contrast to the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which it alleged supported such policies. On 20 September 2006, Abe was elected as the president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. His chief competitors for the position were Sadakazu Tanigaki and Tarō Asō . Yasuo Fukuda was a leading early contender but ultimately chose not to run. Former prime minister Yoshirō Mori, to whose faction both Abe and Fukuda belonged, stated that

2030-402: 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. In September 2013 Abe called for a "society in which all women can shine", setting

2175-559: A cut. Your genitals swell and bruise. Damage to the womb and other internal organs can also be tremendous ... [B]eing used as a public dumping ground by those men left me with deep shame that I still feel in the pit of my stomach – it's like a hard, heavy, sick feeling that never entirely goes away. They saw not just my completely helpless, naked body, but they heard me beg, and cry. They reduced me to something low and disgusting that suffered miserably in front of them ... Even years later, it has taken tremendous courage for me to put these words on

2320-437: A growth strategy focusing on structural reform and private sector investment to achieve long-term growth. In 2019, it was reported that 40% of key economic statistics collected from 2005 to 2017 contained errors, casting doubt on the effectiveness of Abe's economic program and the reliability of Japanese economic statistics. It was discovered that the labor ministry did not follow protocol by only surveying about one-third of all

2465-558: A hard-line stance on North Korea , especially regarding the North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens . In 2002 negotiations between Japan and North Korea, Prime Minister Koizumi and general secretary Kim Jong-il agreed to give abductees permission to visit Japan. A few weeks into the visit, the Japanese government decided that the abductees would be restricted from returning to North Korea where their families live. Abe took credit for this policy decision in his bestselling book, Towards

2610-533: A historical play drama called "Hayatie's life (Hayat Hayatie) when she was raped by the Japanese in Singapore. Another play called Wild Rice was also based on another Malay comfort woman who didn't tell her family in the 1980s how she was raped by the Japanese in the 1940s and sought to hide her humiliation from them. On 16-17 October 1992, in Nepal, Kathmandu, the "Conference of International  Investigation Committee on

2755-477: A larger emphasis on foreign policy and national security instead of domestic concerns like economic policy. It also speculated that Abe's primary goal may have been to revise the pacifist constitution. Abe expressed a general commitment to the reforms instituted by his predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi. He took some steps toward balancing the Japanese budget, such as appointing a tax policy expert, Kōji Omi , as Minister of Finance. Omi previously supported increases in

2900-525: A letter for her. However, her long suffering was left unremedied . The Malay woman thought that the UMNO party would demand the Japanese government apologize and pay reparations since she was a member of the UMNO but the UMNOF leadership refused to press the case. The Japanese forced ethnic Malay Muslim girls into becoming comfort women to be raped by Japanese soldiers. One of these Malay girls had her experience made into

3045-611: A lieutenant is quoted as confessing to having organized a brothel and having used it himself. Another source refers to Tokkeitai members having arrested women on the streets and putting them in brothels after enforced medical examinations. On May 12, 2007, journalist Taichiro Kajimura announced the discovery of 30 Dutch government documents submitted to the Tokyo tribunal as evidence of a forced mass prostitution incident in 1944 in Magelang . The South Korean government designated Bae Jeong-ja as

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3190-496: A major issue was that no historian had examined whether the soldiers of the Indian National Army used comfort women, since there had been no investigation for it. Lebra wrote "None of those who have written on Bose's Indian national army has investigated whether, while they were trained by the Japanese army, they were permitted to share in the 'comfort' provided by thousands of kidnapped Korean young women held as sex slaves by

3335-630: A member of the Japanese Diet, Abe visited Taiwan in 2010 and 2011. There he met with president Ma Ying-jeou , former president Lee Teng-hui and future president Tsai Ing-wen , who was then the leader of the Democratic Progressive Party . Ma described Abe as "the ROC's best friend" and said Abe was the third generation of his family to have close ties with the Republic of China. Abe also visited

3480-520: 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

3625-423: 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

3770-550: A paper on comfort women in Malaysia who were forced to serve the Japanese military. She wrote that the Japanese targeted their comfort women recruitment form all ethnic groups and not just one in the occupied regions. The Malay Mustapha Yaakub, who was Youth International Bureau secretary for the UMNO called for Malaaysians who were victimized by Japanese soldiers such as comfort women to go out in public and talk about what happened in 1993. He received multiple letters including one known by

3915-505: 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. On 15 March 2013, Abe announced that Japan was entering negotiations to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). This was interpreted by analysts as a means through which the government could enact reforms to liberalize certain sectors of the Japanese economy, most notably agriculture, and

4060-529: A pro-Japanese collaborator ( chinilpa ) in September 2007 for recruiting comfort women. In 2014, China produced almost 90 documents from the archives of the Kwantung Army on the issue. According to China, the documents provide ironclad proof that the Japanese military forced Asian women to work in front-line brothels before and during World War II. In June 2014, more official documents were made public from

4205-492: A rapid rate, making her estimates of 200,000-400,000 comfort women plausible, with the majority being Chinese women. Ikuhiko Hata , a professor of Nihon University , estimated the number of women working in the licensed pleasure quarter was fewer than 20,000 and that they were 40% Japanese, 20% Koreans, 10% Chinese, with others making up the remaining 30%. According to Hata, the total number of government-regulated prostitutes in Japan

4350-527: 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. He and Finance Minister Tarō Asō explained that the tax would be increased to provide a "sustainable" basis for future social spending and to avoid the need to finance future stimulus by issuing government bonds. While this

4495-441: A series of political funding scandals. He was the first cabinet member to commit suicide since World War II. Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party suffered great losses in the upper house election , losing control for the first time in 52 years. Agricultural minister, Norihiko Akagi , involved in a political funding scandal, resigned after the election. Additionally, Abe's rejection of a possible female Japanese monarch, which led to

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4640-532: A station in Flores was raped by 23 Japanese men daily, 1 officer, 2 NCOS and 20 soldiers. They were expected to be raped by 100 men each week and received a ticket showing it from every one of them. The mass rapes committed by the Japanese against indigenous Javanese Indonesian Muslim women largely went unpunished since the Allied powers like the Dutch and Australians showed no interest in investigation or pressing charges against

4785-528: A substantial minority of the contractors in Korea were Japanese, the majority were Korean. In the Philippines during the Japanese occupation, around 1,000 Filipino women were made into comfort women. The victims were as young as 12 years old at the time of their enslavement. As many of the survivors recall, the garrisons or comfort stations/brothels were spread all over the Philippines. The garrisons were located from

4930-482: 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

5075-640: A total number of 400 Dutch girls were taken from the camps to become comfort women. Besides Dutch women, many Javanese were also recruited from Indonesia as comfort women, including around 1000 East Timorese women and girls who also used as sexual slaves. Most were adolescent girls aged 14–19 who had completed some education and were deceived through promises of higher education in Tokyo or Singapore. Common destinations of comfort women from Java included Burma, Thailand, and Eastern Indonesia. Interviews conducted with former comfort women also suggest that some women came from

5220-404: A victim of the incident, in 1990, Jan Ruff-O'Herne testified to a U.S. House of Representatives committee: Many stories have been told about the horrors, brutalities, suffering and starvation of Dutch women in Japanese prison camps. But one story was never told, the most shameful story of the worst human rights abuse committed by the Japanese during World War II: The story of the "Comfort Women",

5365-438: A woman ... I feel sick when I come close to a man. Not just Japanese men, but all men-even my own husband who saved me from the brothel. I shiver whenever I see a Japanese flag ... Why should I feel ashamed? I don't have to feel ashamed." Kim stated that she was raped 30–40 times a day, every day of the year during her time as a "comfort woman". Reflecting their dehumanized status, Army and Navy records where referring to

5510-577: A worsening of anti-Japanese sentiment, to reduce venereal diseases among Japanese troops, and to prevent leakage of military secrets by civilians who were in contact with Japanese officers. Carmen Argibay , a former member of the Argentine Supreme Court of Justice, states that the Japanese government aimed to prevent atrocities like the Rape of Nanking by confining rape and sexual abuse to military-controlled facilities, or stop incidents from leaking to

5655-415: A year later due to ulcerative colitis and his party's recent election losses . After recovering, Abe staged an unexpected political comeback by defeating Shigeru Ishiba , the former defense minister , to become LDP president in 2012. Following the LDP's landslide victory in that year's general election , Abe became the first former prime minister to return to office since Shigeru Yoshida in 1948. He led

5800-737: The 10 July upper house elections . The suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami , who was immediately arrested by Japanese police, confessed to targeting the former prime minister because of Abe's reported ties with the Unification Church . This was the first assassination of a former Japanese prime minister since 1936 . A polarizing figure in Japanese politics, Abe was described by supporters as having worked to strengthen Japan's security and international stature, while opponents described his nationalistic policies and negationist views on history as threatening Japanese pacifism and damaging relations with East Asian neighbors, including China and South Korea. Shinzo Abe

5945-514: The Anpo protests . The BBC speculated that Abe's aversion to protests may have originated as a result. Abe viewed Kishi as his "No 1 role model" and was influenced by many of his beliefs, like Kishi's hawkish stance on China. Regarding Kishi, Abe later wrote: "Some people used to point to my grandfather as a 'Class-A war criminal suspect,' and I felt strong repulsion. Because of that experience, I may have become emotionally attached to 'conservatism,' on

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6090-589: The Battle of Saipan comfort women were among those who committed suicide by jumping off the cliffs of Saipan. In Burma, there were cases of Korean comfort women committing suicide by swallowing cyanide pills or being killed by having a hand grenade tossed into their dug-outs. During the Battle of Manila , when Japanese sailors ran amok and simply killed everyone, there were cases of comfort women being killed, though there does not seem to have been any systematic policy of killing comfort women. The Japanese government had told

6235-558: The House of Councillors Shinz%C5%8D Abe Shinzo Abe ( / ˈ ʃ ɪ n z oʊ ˈ ɑː b eɪ / SHIN -zoh AH -bay ; Japanese : 安倍 晋三 , Hepburn : Abe Shinzō , IPA: [abe ɕindzoː] ; 21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese statesman and politician who served as the prime minister of Japan and president of the Liberal Democratic Party ( LDP ) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020. He

6380-800: The International Commission of Jurists quotes "estimates of historians of 100,000 to 200,000 women." Most of the women were from occupied countries, including Korea , China , and the Philippines . Women who were used for military "comfort stations" also came from Burma , Thailand , French Indochina , Malaya , Manchukuo , Taiwan (then a Japanese dependency), the Dutch East Indies , Portuguese Timor , Papua New Guinea (including some mixed race Japanese-Papuans ) and other Japanese-occupied territories. Stations were located in Japan , China ,

6525-538: The National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine , a shrine dedicated to the war dead of the Republic of China, including those who died in the Second Sino-Japanese War. Abe later revealed that the illness that contributed to ending his first term as prime minister was ulcerative colitis , but that he recovered due to access to a drug, Asacol , that was previously unavailable in Japan. Following

6670-538: The South China Sea , the East China Sea and, indeed, the entire Western Pacific... China's military strategy has rested on the concept of a 'strategic frontier'. In a nutshell, this very dangerous idea posits that borders and exclusive economic zones are determined by national power, and that as long as China's economy continues to grow, its sphere of influence will continue to expand. Some might associate this with

6815-621: The Tianjin Municipal Archives from the archival files of the Japanese government and the Japanese police during the periods of the occupation in World War II. Municipal archives from Shanghai and Nanjing were also examined. One conclusion reached was that the relevant archives in Korea are distorted. A conclusion of the study was that the Japanese Imperial government and the colonial government in Korea tried to avoid recording

6960-490: The University of Southern California , Abe was elected to the Japanese House of Representatives in the 1993 election . Abe was appointed Chief Cabinet Secretary by Prime Minister Koizumi in 2005 before replacing him as prime minister and LDP president the following year. Confirmed by the National Diet , Abe became Japan's youngest post-war prime minister and the first born after World War II . Abe resigned as prime minister

7105-643: The Yasukuni Shrine . Abe, in his four terms as the prime minister of Japan, sought to upgrade the strategic Japan–India relationship. Abe initiated the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue between Japan, the United States, Australia, and India in 2007, which was seen as a counter to China's rising power. His three-day visit to India in August 2007 inaugurated a new bilateral Asian alliance, building on

7250-465: The "comfort stations" in various parts of China and Java, were the subject of these records. Su concluded that the sources revealed that comfort women stations were ordered, supported, and managed by the Japanese military authorities. Documents were found in Shanghai that showed details of how the Japanese Army went about opening comfort stations for Japanese troops in occupied Shanghai. Documents included

7395-567: The "comfort women corps" were almost always virgins, it was felt that this was the best way to limit the spread of venereal diseases that would otherwise incapacitate soldiers and sailors. Ten Dutch women were taken by force from prison camps in Java by officers of the Imperial Japanese Army to become forced sex slaves in February 1944. They were systematically beaten and raped day and night. As

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7540-563: The 1992 Kono Statement . Responding to a potential motion by the US Congress encouraging Japan to acknowledge the atrocity, Abe stated that the Japanese government would not apologize again. Abe held conservative views in the Japanese succession controversy . Shortly after the birth of Prince Hisahito of Akishino , he abandoned a proposed legislative amendment to permit women to inherit the Chrysanthemum Throne . Abe generally took

7685-465: The BOJ would boost the monetary easing program and accelerate asset purchases, the monetary policy committee split by five votes to four but supported the policy. This was interpreted as a response to disappointing economic figures in the aftermath of the increase in the consumption tax to 8 percent, inflation has fallen to 1 percent from its peak of 1.5 percent in April. The Abe Cabinet's first budget included

7830-587: 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. In a surprise move in October 2014, Kuroda announced that

7975-481: The Chinese civilians." To staff the establishments, Japanese prostitutes were imported from Japan. Japanese women were the first victims to be enslaved in military brothels and trafficked across Japan, Okinawa, Japan's colonies and occupied territories, and overseas battlegrounds. According to Yoshiaki Yoshimi, comfort stations were established to avoid criticism from China, the United States of America and Europe following

8120-763: The Commission for the reparations and apologies. 3,500 Malaysians sent letters to Mustapha Yaakub in the span of 4 months. The victims thought the UMNO Malaysian government was going to demand reparations and an apology from Japan so they had turned up en masse since a UMNO official was behind the push. Their hopes were dashed when the UMNO heads led by Najiz Razak forced Mustapha Yaakub to back down so Japan did not apologize or pay reparations to Malay rape vicitms. Indigenous Indonesian Muslim Javanese girls and women were taken as comfort women by Japanese soldiers and raped. One Indonesian seaman named Sukarno Martodiharjo (unrelated to

8265-573: The Crimes of War of Japan" took place with members attending from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Thailand, Japan, Algeria and France. The UMNO (United Malays National Organization) Youth secretary Musapha Yakuub was a Malay delegate at the meeting and comfort women were one of the topics there. Mustapha then started his own investigation and documentation of all Japanese crimes committed from 1942-1945 when they occupied Malaysia against its people. Mustapha urged all victims to report to him

8410-541: The Diet, with the support of 328 out of 480 members of the House of Representatives. He and his second cabinet , which he called a "crisis-busting 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. Following his victory, Abe said, "With

8555-651: The German concept of ' lebensraum '." Abe saw in the ASEAN countries a counterbalance to Chinese expansionism. Abe feared the Finlandization of Japan with respect to China, and saw the reaction of the Kan Cabinet to the September 2010 Senkaku boat collision incident as "a very foolish move" and "frighteningly naive". He stated the "imperative that Japan conduct a review of its Three Principles on Arms Exports ." While serving as

8700-416: The Imperial Japanese Army at its camps. This might have provided them with some insight into the nature of Japanese, as opposed to British, colonial rule, as well what might be in store for their sisters and daughters." Under the strain of the war effort, the military became unable to provide enough supplies to Japanese units; in response, the units made up the difference by demanding or looting supplies from

8845-758: The Indonesian President Sukarno) witnessed Indonesian Muslim Javanese girls trafficked as comfort women by Japanese soldiers. Indonesian writer Pramudya Ananta Tur wrote about how Javanese Muslim Indonesian girls were taken as sex slaves by the Japanese and the fact that they were from high class prominent families and their fathers were tricked into sending them into prostitution since the Japanese lied to them and told them their daughters would study in Japan. These Javanese men were collaborations public servants, school headmasters, policemen, villages heads, subdistrict heads and other local chiefs. A Javanese Indonesian Muslim girl, Siti Fatimah recalled being raped as

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8990-732: The Japanese colonists on Saipan that the Americans were cannibals, and so the Japanese population preferred suicide to falling into the hands of the Americans. It is possible that many of the Asian comfort women may also have believed this. British soldiers fighting in Burma often reported that the Korean comfort women whom they captured were astonished to learn that the British were not going to eat them. Ironically, given this claim, there were cases of starving Japanese troops cut off on remote Pacific islands or trapped in

9135-406: The Japanese for raping Indonesian women since the Dutch themselves had sexual abused and raped indigenous Javanese Indonesian women for centuries including using them as military prostitutes for Dutch soldiers so the Dutch did not view what the Japanese did to Indonesians as a crime but rather as a norm. The Japanese also destroyed tons of records related to Indonesian comfort women as they were losing

9280-586: The Japanese military executed Korean comfort women when they fled from losing battles with the Allied Forces. During the last stand of Japanese forces in 1944–45, comfort women were often forced to commit suicide or were killed. During World war II, at Chuuk Lagoon, 70 comfort women were killed prior to the expected American assault as the Navy mistook the American air raid as the prelude to an American landing while during

9425-456: The Japanese military used comfort women to satisfy disgruntled soldiers during World War II and prevent military revolt. He said that, despite the goal of reducing rape and venereal disease, the comfort stations did the opposite—aggravating rape and increasing the spread of venereal disease. Comfort women stations were so prevalent that the Imperial Army offered accountancy classes on how to manage comfort stations, which included how to determine

9570-456: The Japanese soldiers took her, "soldiers began to skin her father alive." This maltreatment left physical and emotional scars. Military doctors and medical workers frequently raped the women during medical examinations. One Japanese Army doctor, Asō Tetsuo, testified that the comfort women were seen as "female ammunition" and as "public toilets"—as literally just things to be used and abused—with some comfort women being forced to donate blood for

9715-668: The Japanese succession controversy, diminished his support base. In an attempt to revive his administration, Abe announced a new cabinet in August 2007. Support for Abe rose by 10 percent as a result; however, the new agricultural minister Takehiko Endo , involved in a finance scandal, resigned only seven days later. On 12 September 2007, only three days after a new parliamentary session had begun, Abe announced his intention to resign his position as prime minister at an unscheduled press conference. The announcement came just minutes before opposition leaders were scheduled to question him in Parliament and shocked many. Abe had described himself as

9860-439: The Japanese warned the inmates that if anyone told what had happened to them, they and their family members would be killed. Several months later the O'Hernes were transferred to a camp at Batavia, which was liberated on August 15, 1945. Suki Falconberg, a comfort women survivor, shared her experiences: Serial penetration by many men is not a mild form of torture. Just the tears at the vaginal opening feel like fire applied to

10005-413: The LDP to further victories in the 2014 and 2017 elections , becoming Japan's longest-serving prime minister. In 2020, Abe again resigned as prime minister, citing a relapse of his colitis, and was succeeded by Yoshihide Suga . Abe was a staunch conservative and associated with the Nippon Kaigi , which holds negationist views on Japanese history, including denying the role of government coercion in

10150-420: The Philippines, Indonesia, Malaya, Thailand, Burma, New Guinea, Hong Kong , Macau , and French Indochina. A smaller number of women of European origin were also involved, mostly from the Netherlands and Australia with an estimated 200–400 Dutch women alone, with an unknown number of other European women. According to State University of New York at Buffalo professor Yoshiko Nozaki and other sources,

10295-520: The Philippines, and Indonesia in this arrangement has been speculated in the media of those states. Chinese strategic experts have labeled the evolving geo-strategic paradigm, the " Asian NATO ". Abe's pragmatic India foreign policy was to boost Japan's resurgent economic indicators while gaining a crucial partner in Asia. Abe sought to revise or broaden the interpretation of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution in order to permit Japan to maintain de jure military forces. He stated that "we are reaching

10440-571: The actuarial "durability or perishability of the women procured." In the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, Japan's military closely regulated privately operated brothels in Manchuria. Comfort houses were first established in Shanghai after the Shanghai incident in 1932 as a response to wholesale rape of Chinese women by Japanese soldiers. Yasuji Okamura , the chief of staff in Shanghai, ordered

10585-606: 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

10730-519: The atrocities that the Japanese had done in Malaysia and wanted to force the Japanese government to pay reparations and apologize by bringing up comfort women and forced labor which he called "Cruel deeds" at the UN Human Rights Commission. Mustapha wanted to attend the May 1993 Austria, Vienna UN World Human Rights Conference and submit his report so that countries attacked by Japan could testify to

10875-575: The cabinet of Prime Minister Hideki Tojo . At the end of the war, Kishi was imprisoned as a suspected "Class-A" war criminal by the US military occupation of Japan , but was released and later de-purged as part of the Occupation's " reverse course " due to the Cold War . Kishi helped found the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in 1955 and served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1957 until his 1960 resignation following

11020-451: The cabinet's move to raise the consumption tax from 5 to 10 percent. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda was forced to rely on the LDP to pass the consumption tax bill and in return was pressured by Abe and the opposition parties to hold a snap general election. Noda agreed to this on the conditions that the LDP passed a bond-financing bill and would support a commission to reform the social security system and address electoral malapportionment in

11165-421: The case of massive rapes between battles in Shanghai and Nanjing. As Japan continued military expansion, the military found itself short of Japanese volunteers, and turned to local populations—abducting and coercing women into serving as sex slaves in the comfort stations. Many women responded to calls to work as factory workers or nurses, and did not know that they were being pressed into sexual slavery . In

11310-538: The company in 1982 and pursued a number of government positions including executive assistant to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, private secretary to the chairperson of the LDP General Council, and private secretary to the LDP secretary-general. Abe worked as a secretary for his father who visited 81 countries in the 1980s. These travels imparted to Abe the importance of building relations with foreign leaders. Abe

11455-486: The construction of comfort houses to prevent further rape. After the rapes of many Chinese women by Japanese troops during the Nanjing Massacre in 1937, the Japanese forces adopted the general policy of creating comfort stations in various places in Japanese occupied Chinese territory, "not because of their concern for the Chinese victims of rape by Japanese soldiers but because of their fear of creating antagonism among

11600-601: The contrary". His mother Yōko was a noted calligrapher . Abe's paternal grandfather, Kan Abe , was a Yamaguchi landowner who served in the House of Representatives during World War II. In contrast to Kishi, Kan Abe was a stalwart pacifist who opposed the Tojo government and war in East Asia. Abe attended Seikei Elementary School  [ ja ] and Seikei Junior and Senior High School  [ ja ] (成蹊中学校・高等学校). He studied public administration and graduated with

11745-525: The daughters of the gentry and the bureaucracy were spared from being sent into the "comfort women corps" unless they or their families showed signs of pro-independence tendencies, and the overwhelming majority of the Korean girls taken into the "comfort women corps" came from the poor. The Army and Navy often subcontracted the work of taking girls into the "comfort women corps" in Korea to contractors, who were usually associated in some way with organized crime groups that were paid for girls they presented. Though

11890-510: The day and being sexually abused at night was also recounted by another Filipino Survivor Fedencia David, who was kidnapped by Japanese soldiers at age 14, who also remembered being forced to wash clothes and cook for the Japanese soldiers. At night, she was raped by as many as 5 to 10 Japanese soldiers. Along with being raped multiple times a day the women were subjected to separation from their families, often watching their families being murdered by Japanese soldiers. One survivor recounts that when

12035-568: The discovery of seven official documents in the archives of the Tokyo Trials, suggesting that Imperial military forces – such as the Tokkeitai (Naval military police) – forced women whose fathers attacked the Kenpeitai (Japanese Army military police) to work in front-line brothels in China, Indochina, and Indonesia. These documents were initially made public at the war crimes trial. In one of these,

12180-508: The early stages of World War II, Japanese authorities recruited prostitutes through conventional means. In urban areas, conventional advertising through middlemen was used alongside kidnapping. Middlemen advertised in newspapers circulating in Japan and in the Japanese colonies of Korea , Taiwan, Manchukuo , and China. These sources soon dried up, especially in metropolitan Japan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs resisted further issuance of travel visas for Japanese prostitutes, feeling it tarnished

12325-468: The elections on 16 December 2012, the LDP won 294 seats in the 480-seat House of Representatives. Together with the New Komeito Party (which partnered with the LDP since the late 1990s), Abe was able to form a coalition government that controlled a two-thirds majority in the lower house, allowing it to override the upper house's veto. On 26 December 2012, Abe was formally elected as prime minister by

12470-400: The faction strongly leant toward Abe. On 26 September 2006, Abe was inaugurated as Japanese prime minister. Elected at age 52, he was the youngest prime minister since Fumimaro Konoe in 1941. He was also the first prime minister born after World War II . Abe's first cabinet was announced on 26 September 2006. The only minister retained in his position from the previous Koizumi cabinet

12615-463: 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

12760-406: The general makeup of the total comfort women population, Korean women made up 51.8 percent, Chinese 36 percent and Japanese 12.2 percent. In 1997, Bruce Cumings , a historian of Korea, wrote that Japan had forced quotas to supply the comfort women program and that Korean men helped recruit the victims. Cumings stated that between 100,000 and 200,000 Korean girls and women were recruited. In Korea,

12905-643: The government of Japan's archives, documenting sexual violence and women forced into sexual slavery, committed by Imperial Japanese soldiers in French Indochina and Indonesia. A 2015 study examined archival data which was previously difficult to access, partly due to the China-Japan Joint Communiqué of 1972 in which the Chinese government agreed not to seek any restitution for wartime crimes and incidents. New documents discovered in China shed light on facilities inside comfort stations operated within

13050-534: The governments response; one lawmaker called Abe's economic program a fraud, with many journalists labeling the event as a data scandal. 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

13195-498: The homes of Japanese officers to serve one man as a sex slave rather than many men in a brothel. One such European woman, K'tut Tantri , of Scottish ancestry, wrote a book describing her ordeal. A Dutch government study described the methods used by the Japanese military to seize the women by force. It concluded that among the 200 to 300 European women found in the Japanese military brothels, "some sixty five were most certainly forced into prostitution". Others, faced with starvation in

13340-401: The illegal mobilization of comfort women. It was concluded that they burned most of the records immediately before the surrender; however, the study confirmed that some documents and records survived. Professor Su Jiliang concludes that during the seven-year period from 1938 to 1945, comfort women in the territory occupied by the Japanese numbered 360,000 to 410,000, among whom the Chinese were

13485-561: The image of the Japanese Empire. The military turned to acquiring comfort women outside mainland Japan, mostly from Korea and from occupied China. An existing system of licensed prostitution within Korea made it easy for Japan to recruit women in large numbers. Many women were tricked or defrauded into joining the military brothels. Based on false characterizations and payments—by Japanese or by local recruitment agents—which could help relieve family debts, many Korean girls enlisted to take

13630-589: The international press should they occur. She also states that the government wanted to minimize medical expenses on treating venereal diseases that the soldiers acquired from frequent and widespread rape, which hindered Japan's military capacity. Comfort women lived in sordid conditions, and were called "public toilets" by the Japanese. Yuki Tanaka states that local brothels outside of the military's reach had issues of security, since there were possibilities of spies disguised as workers of such private facilities. Japanese historian Yoshiaki Yoshimi further states that

13775-868: The island of Flores . After the war, many Javanese comfort women who survived stayed in the locations where they had been trafficked to and became integrated into local populations. Melanesian women from New Guinea were also used as comfort women. Local women were recruited from Rabaul as comfort women, along with some number of mixed Japanese-Papuan women born to Japanese fathers and Papuan mothers. One Australian Captain, David Hutchinson-Smith, also mentioned of some mixed-race, young Japanese-Papuan girls who were also conscripted as comfort women. A Papuan activist from Western New Guinea claimed an estimated 16,161 Papuan New Guinean comfort women were used by Japanese male soldiers during their occupation of New Guinea. In 1985, Japanese comfort woman survivor Shirota Suzuko (1921–1993) released her autobiography, detailing

13920-594: The island, and his great-uncle Eisaku Satō was the last prime minister to visit Taiwan while in office. Abe expressed the need to strengthen political, security, and economic ties with Southeast Asian countries. Although the PRC is not within the Southeast Asian region, Japan has also sought its support. However, relations with the PRC and the ROC continue to be tarnished by the Senkaku Islands dispute and Abe's visits to

14065-773: The job. Furthermore, the South East Asia Translation and Interrogation Center (SEATIC) Psychological Warfare Interrogation Bulletin No.2 states that a Japanese facility-manager purchased Korean women for 300 to 1000 yen depending on their physical characteristics, who then became his property and were not released even after completing the servitude terms specified in the contract. In northern Hebei province of China, Hui Muslim girls were recruited to "Huimin Girls' school" to be trained as entertainers, but then forced to serve as sex slaves. The American historian Gerhard Weinberg wrote that

14210-492: The jugun ianfu, and how these women were forcibly seized against their will, to provide sexual services for the Japanese Imperial Army. In the "comfort station" I was systematically beaten and raped day and night. Even the Japanese doctor raped me each time he visited the brothel to examine us for venereal disease. In their first morning at the brothel, photographs of Ruff-O'Herne and the others were taken and placed on

14355-500: The jungles of Burma turning towards cannibalism, and there were at least several cases where comfort women in Burma and on Pacific islands were killed to provide food for the Imperial Japanese Army. According to an account by a survivor, she was beaten when she attempted to resist being raped. The women who were not prostitutes prior to joining the "comfort women corps", especially those taken in by force, were normally "broken in" by being raped. One Korean woman, Kim Hak-sun , stated in

14500-418: The large Japanese businesses it was supposed to survey. The data was eventually corrected, and it was discovered that the faulty data presented Japanese economic statistics more favorably than the corrected data. The faulty data costed 19.7 million people about 53.7 billion yen in unpaid benefits, and costed the Japanese government 650 million yen to correct the error. Opposition politicians criticized

14645-437: The largest group, about 200,000. Lack of official documentation has made estimating the total number of comfort women difficult. Vast amounts of material pertaining to war crimes, and the responsibility of the nation's highest leaders, were either destroyed or concealed on the orders of the Japanese government at the end of the war. Historians have arrived at various estimates by looking at surviving documentation, which indicates

14790-665: The limit in narrowing down differences between Japan's security and the interpretation of our constitution". During his first period as prime minister, he upgraded the Japan Defense Agency to full ministry status . Like his predecessors, he supported the Japanese alliance with the United States. Abe supported the US-led war in Iraq . In the lead-up to the July election, Abe's Agriculture Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka committed suicide following

14935-462: The locals. The military often directly demanded that local leaders procure women for the brothels along the front lines, especially in the countryside where middlemen were rare. When the locals were considered hostile in China, Japanese soldiers carried out the "Three Alls Policy" ("kill all, burn all, loot all") which included indiscriminately kidnapping and raping local civilians. On April 17, 2007, Yoshiaki Yoshimi and Hirofumi Hayashi announced

15080-559: The long history of friendly bilateral relations between India and Japan . Abe's initiative was to establish the "fifth" bilateral link in an emerging scenario, whereby, the US–Australia, US–Japan, Japan–Australia, and the US–India links are supportive strategic alignments. A sixth link of India-Australia would be the logical corollary, formalized as a new quadrilateral of a strategic bulwark. The eventual expansion to include Vietnam, South Korea,

15225-540: The majority of the women were from Korea and China . Chuo University professor and historian Yoshiaki Yoshimi discovered an abundance of documentation and testimony proving the existence of 2,000 comfort women stations where approximately 200,000 Korean, Filipina, Taiwanese, Indonesian, Burmese, Dutch, Australian, and Japanese women, many of whom were teenagers, were confined and forced to perform sexual activities with Japanese troops. According to Qiu Peipei of Vassar College , comfort women were replaced with other women at

15370-402: The movement of comfort women always used the term "units of war supplies". In the Philippines according to the recounts of Filipino survivors Narcisa Claveria, who was enslaved for 18 months at the age of 13, during the day the women were forced to cook, clean, and do laundry. At night the Japanese soldiers raped and abused the women. The story of the comfort women doing household chores during

15515-582: The national consumption tax , although Abe distanced himself from this policy and sought to achieve much of his budget-balancing through spending cuts. Since 1997, as the bureau chief of the "Institute of Junior Assembly Members Who Think About the Outlook of Japan and History Education", Abe supported the controversial Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform and the New History Textbook . In March 2007, Abe, along with right-wing politicians, proposed

15660-418: The next diet session. On 16 November 2012, Prime Minister Noda announced the dissolution of the lower house and that the general election would be held on 16 December. Abe campaigned using the slogan "Nippon o Torimodosu" ( " Take back Japan " ), promising economic revival through monetary easing, higher public spending and the continued use of nuclear energy, and a tough line in territorial disputes. In

15805-475: The northern region of Cagayan Valley to the Davao region in the south. During the initial invasion of Dutch East Indies , Japanese soldiers raped many Indonesian and European women and girls. The Kenpeitai established the comfort women program to control the problem. The Kenpeitai forced and coerced many interned women to serve as prostitutes, including several hundred European women. A few of these chose to live in

15950-457: The number of women they employ, and what positions they hold. Comfort women Estimates vary as to how many women were involved, with most historians settling somewhere in the range of 50,000–200,000; the exact numbers are still being researched and debated. Originally, the brothels were established to provide soldiers with a sexual outlet, to reduce wartime rape and the spread of venereal diseases. The comfort stations, however, had

16095-571: The office of his supporters in Shimonoseki , in Yamaguchi Prefecture, were attacked with Molotov cocktails on numerous occasions. The perpetrators were several yakuza belonging to the Kudo-kai , a Kitakyushu -based designated bōryokudan syndicate. The reason for the attacks was believed to be that Abe's local aide refused to give cash to a Shimonoseki real estate broker in return for supporting

16240-527: The passage of which was controversial and met with protests . Economically, Abe attempted to counter Japan's economic stagnation with " Abenomics ", with mixed results. He was also credited with reinstating the Trans-Pacific Partnership with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership . On 8 July 2022, Abe was assassinated while delivering a campaign speech in Nara two days before

16385-400: 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

16530-539: The prime ministership to prevent Japan becoming a "Tier Two Nation", declaring that "Japan is back". The Second Abe cabinet revived the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy (CEFP) that had played a key role in formulating economic policy during the Koizumi cabinet, but had been abandoned by the 2009–2012 DPJ administrations. Abe declared in his January 2013 policy speech to the Diet that economic revival and escaping deflation

16675-461: The promises of equity and sponsorship for higher education. A significant percentage of comfort women were minors. Given that prostitution in Japan was pervasive and organized, it was logical to find military prostitution in the Japanese armed forces. Military correspondence within the Imperial Japanese Army shows that the aims for facilitating comfort stations were: to reduce or prevent rape crimes by Japanese army personnel in an effort to prevent

16820-558: The pseydonym P who was interviewed by Nakahara. However, Najib Tun Razak , the head of UMNOF Youth and Defence Minister banned Mustapha Yaakub from talking about the Malay rape victims at the 1993 Austria United Nations Human Rights Conference. Nakahara wrote about an ethnic Malay comfort woman who was raped and forced into sex slavery at a comfort woman station by Japanese soldiers. The Malay rape victim said " I worked like an animal, they did to me just as they liked. I had to obey their orders until

16965-544: The ratio of soldiers in a particular area to the number of women and replacement rates of the women. Most academic researchers and media typically point to Yoshiaki's estimate as the most probable range of the numbers of women involved. This figure contrasts with the inscriptions on monuments in the United States such as those in New Jersey, New York, Virginia, and California, which state the number of comfort women as "more than 200,000". The BBC quotes "200,000 to 300,000", and

17110-454: 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

17255-522: The recruitment of comfort women during World War II , a position which caused tensions particularly with South Korea. Under his premiership, Japan–South Korea relations further strained in 2019 over disputes about reparations. Earlier that same year, Abe's government initiated a trade dispute with South Korea after the South Korean Supreme Court ruled that reparations be made by Japanese companies who had benefited from forced labor . Abe

17400-411: The refugee camps, agreed to offers of food and payment for work, the nature of which was not completely revealed to them. Some of the women also volunteered in hopes protecting the younger ones. The women forced into prostitution may therefore be much higher than the Dutch record have previously indicated. The number of Dutch women that were sexually assaulted or molested were also largely ignored. It

17545-458: The resignation of LDP president Sadakazu Tanigaki, Abe was re-elected as president of the party on 26 September 2012, coming in second out of five candidates in the first round of voting, but defeating former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba in a runoff vote by 108 votes to 89. Abe returned to the LDP leadership at a time of political turmoil, as the governing DPJ had lost its majority in the lower house due to party splits over nuclear policies and

17690-512: The reverse effect of what was intended—it increased the amount of rapes and increased the spread of venereal diseases. The first victims were Japanese women, some who were recruited by conventional means, and some who were recruited through deception or kidnapping. The military later turned to women in Japanese colonies, due to lack of Japanese volunteers and the need to protect Japan's image. In many cases, women were lured by false job openings for nurses and factory workers. Others were also lured by

17835-518: The strength of my entire cabinet, I will implement bold monetary policy, flexible fiscal policy and a growth strategy that encourages private investment, and with these three policy pillars, achieve results." In February 2013, Abe gave an address at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., in which he explained his economic and diplomatic objectives, and that he had returned to

17980-423: The sufferings she and other women endured as comfort women. More than 2,000 Taiwanese women were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military; as of 2020, only two were still believed to be alive. Yoshiaki Yoshimi notes that more than half of Taiwanese comfort women were minors. In 2023 the last surviving Taiwanese comfort woman died. The Japanese academic Nakahara Michiko from Waseda University wrote

18125-424: The surrender ". Nakahara said " Her daughter told me her mother has nightmares and cries in her sleep. She used to wander aimlessly after the bad dreams ... She told me herself that she begged God for pardon for the sins she had committed. She still suffers from her memory and her feeling of having sinned. It seems nobody in her village ever told her that it was not her sin at all ... She had asked her daughter to write

18270-478: The treatment of wounded soldiers. At least 80% of the comfort women were Korean, who were assigned to the lower ranks, while Japanese and European women went to the officers. For example, Dutch women captured in the Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia) were reserved exclusively for the officers. Korea is a Confucian country where premarital sex was widely disapproved of, and since the Korean teenagers taken into

18415-514: The veranda which was used as a reception area for the Japanese personnel who would choose from these photographs. Over the following four months the girls were raped and beaten day and night, with those who became pregnant forced to have abortions. After four harrowing months, the girls were moved to a camp at Bogor , in West Java, where they were reunited with their families. This camp was exclusively for women who had been put into military brothels, and

18560-640: The war so the true number of Indonesian comfort women is unknown. The first president of Indonesia, Sukarno was a collaborator of the Japanese and recruited Indonesian girls as prostitutes for Japanese soldiers. It is estimated that most of the survivors became infertile because of the multiple rapes or venereal diseases contracted following the rapes. Women and girls were stripped of their agency and dehumanized as "'female ammunition', 'public toilets', or 'military supplies'". In order to help injured Japanese soldiers receive treatment, some of them were even forced to donate blood. Even though every victim's testimony

18705-407: 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

18850-517: Was Foreign Minister Tarō Asō, who had been one of Abe's competitors for the LDP presidency. In addition to the cabinet positions existing under Koizumi, Abe created five new "advisor" positions. He reshuffled his cabinet on 27 August 2007. Commentators noted that these changes seemed to be an effort by Abe to organize the Prime Minister's office into something more akin to the White House . The New York Times observed that his cabinet appeared to place

18995-555: Was appointed Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party. Abe was a member of the Seiwa Seisaku Kenkyūkai , a faction in the Liberal Democratic Party . This faction is headed by former prime minister Yoshirō Mori. Junichiro Koizumi was a member of the Mori Faction, but left it, as is the custom when accepting a high party post. From 1986 to 1991, Abe's father, Shintaro, headed the same faction. In 2000, Abe's home and

19140-502: Was born on 21 September 1954 to a prominent political family in Shinjuku , Tokyo. Although as a boy he aspired to become a filmmaker, Abe's family history led him upon a political path. His father Shintaro Abe served in the House of Representatives from 1958 to 1991, with stints as Chief Cabinet Secretary , Minister for International Trade and Industry , and Minister for Foreign Affairs . During World War II , Shintaro volunteered to be

19285-678: Was considered a hard-liner with respect to Japan's military policies. In 2007, he initiated the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue during his first tenure as prime minister, aimed at resisting China's rise as a superpower. He advocated for amending Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution to legally codify the status of the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF). However, this was never achieved during his lifetime. He enacted military reforms in 2015 that allowed Japan to exercise collective security by allowing JSDF deployments overseas,

19430-461: Was criticized by farm lobbies and some sections of the LDP. 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

19575-524: Was dissolved on September 16, 2020, and replaced with the Suga cabinet . According to research by Nikkan Gendai , 10 out of 20 members in the Fourth Abe Cabinet had connections to the Unification Church . These connections were largely not reported by Japanese media at the time.     Liberal Democratic     Komeito R = Member of the House of Representatives C = Member of

19720-574: Was elected to the first district of Yamaguchi Prefecture  [ ja ] in 1993 after his father's death in 1991, winning the most votes of the four Representatives elected in the SNTV multi-member district. In 1999, he became Director of the Social Affairs Division. He was Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary in the Yoshirō Mori and Junichiro Koizumi Cabinets from 2000 to 2003, after which he

19865-447: 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 ( see § 2014 general election ). In response to

20010-555: Was not until individuals and groups such as the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts began advocating for victims of the Japanese occupation that the plight of Dutch comfort women entered the collective conscience. As well as being raped and sexually assaulted every day and night, the Dutch girls lived in constant fear of beatings and other physical violence. J.F. van Wagtendonk and the Dutch Broadcast Foundation estimated

20155-523: Was only 170,000 during World War II. Others came from the Philippines, Taiwan, the Dutch East Indies , and other Japanese-occupied countries and regions. Some Dutch women, captured in Dutch colonies in Asia, were also forced into sexual slavery. In further analysis of the Imperial Army medical records for venereal disease treatment from 1940, Yoshimi concluded that if the percentages of women treated reflected

20300-633: Was re-elected to his Yamaguchi 4th district seat in the 2009 election , when the Liberal Democratic Party lost power to the DPJ. On 15 October 2010, Abe delivered a speech in Washington DC to the Hudson Institute on US-Japan relations . Japan had recently been surpassed by China as the number two economy in the world, a position that it had held for the previous 40 years. Abe said: "It appears that China hopes to gain control not only over Taiwan, but also over

20445-513: Was respected among some politicians in the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan), most notably those who are part of the Pan-Green Coalition seeking Taiwanese independence . Chen Shui-bian welcomed Abe's ministership. Part of Abe's appeal in Taiwan was historical; his grandfather Nobusuke Kishi was an anti-communist who supported Chiang Kai-shek 's government after the government retreated to

20590-420: Was the longest-serving prime minister in Japanese history, serving for almost nine years in total. Abe also served as Chief Cabinet Secretary from 2005 to 2006 under Junichiro Koizumi and was briefly the opposition leader in 2012. Abe was born into the prominent Satō–Kishi–Abe family in Tokyo as the grandson of Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi . After graduating from Seikei University and briefly attending

20735-421: Was the leader of a project team within the LDP that conducted a survey on "excessive sexual education and gender-free education". Among the items to which this team raised objections were anatomical dolls and other curricular materials "not taking into consideration the age of children", school policies banning traditional boys' and girls' festivals, and mixed-gender physical education . The team sought to provide

20880-504: Was unique, they all shared commonalities: they all experienced severe and brutal physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. They were repeatedly beaten and forced to perform sexual service with 10 men on normal days and up to 40 men on days after combat. Sufficient food, water, proper housing, toilets, and washing facilities were not provided to the women, and the extent of medical care was restricted to treating sexually transmitted diseases, sterilization, and terminating pregnancies. Torture

21025-406: Was used against women who attempted to flee or refused to comply with the troops' demands. In addition, threats were made to the families of girls who attempted suicide. Since comfort women were forced to travel to the battlefields with the Japanese Imperial Army, many comfort women perished as Allied forces overwhelmed Japan's Pacific defense and annihilated Japanese encampments. In certain cases,

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