Kristin Surak teaches Japanese politics at SOAS, University of London. She is the author of Making Tea, Making Japan: Cultural Nationalism in Practice.
Shinzō Abe became Japan’s longest serving prime minister thanks to the weakness of his political rivals. But Abe never realized his dream of rewriting the Japanese constitution to legitimize the nationalist militarism that was central to his worldview.
Shinzo Abe pledged to create a Japan in which “all women can shine.” But behind the glitter is a program that has little to offer working-class women.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe is pushing the country toward dangerous new militarization.
The nationalist pride and neoliberal economics peddled by Shinzō Abe promise only cheap escape from Japan’s problems.