Why is it Always “Cherchez la femme” with Shinzo Abe?

A year ago, we have already noted a strange attribute that accompanies Japan’s Prime Minister political career. There’s little doubt that Shinzo Abe is among the most successful Japanese politicians of recent decades and, undoubtedly, he’s the most charismatic among the Japanese political elites, yet he’s been fatally unlucky with female colleagues that always put him in all sorts of peculiar positions. This was the matter in his first term in office, and it remains like this now. Yet, this time around a new scandal that is flaring up in Japan wasn’t provoked by a colleague, instead it was triggered by the woman that is the closest to the sitting Prime Minister – his wife Akie Abe.

The scandal erupted last month, when Japanese media sources started noticing that a strip of land in Osaka was sold to a private buyer for a price six-seven times lower that one would normally expect, while the buyer was later established as Moritomo Gakuen, a company that provides private primary education.

This information first appeared on February 10, when Japan’s Prime Minister was on an official trip to the US, along with his wife. Therefore, the largest Japanese media sources have apparently decided that would not cast a shadow on the image of the head the Japanese state during such an important event.

But as soon as Abe’s plane took off in the US to head back to Japan, all the leading Japanese newspapers started publicly discussing the Osaka case. Is should be noted that this local case of corruption landed on the first pages of the national media sources due to a number of factors. First, Akie Abe was expected to become the “honorary director” of the primary school that was to be built on the strip of land in question. A number of questions arose in the media after this fact was established: was she aware of the questionable deal? And if she were, was the Prime Minister told any details about this matter?

The second no less significant circumstance is an entirely political matter. In general, Moritomo Gakuen is considered to represent the extreme right wing of the political spectrum of the country, since its initial education program is based on the pre-WWII educational system of Japan.

It should be recalled that after the end of World War II a new “anti-militaristic and anti-nationalist” education law was adopted, as a private entity Moritomo Gakuen is probably just ignoring. For instance, Japan’s media sources have been reporting that the private school was sending out booklets to the parents of its kindergartens that contained insulting nicknames for Chinese and Koreans.

The case took a serious turn once opposition paties started to study all the aspects of the growing scandal. The most popular word among journalists when describing the actions of Abe’s foes was “toasting”, that is, the gradual introduction of new facts to scandal in order to keep it going.

According to one of the deputies, the prime minister himself was somehow involved in the construction of the future school, but Abe replied that he has never heard anything about the school before the scandal broke out. At the parliamentary hearings, he stated that he was ready to resign if the allegations made against him and his wife were to be confirmed.

Meanwhile, the scandal is miles away from fading out, as there’s new contradictory details being brought to public attention. Earlier, the Moritomo Gakuen management claimed that it was not engaged in any sorts of “trading” with the representatives of local authorities and that they paid what they demanded them to pay. However, in early March, it was announced that a member of the upper house of parliament from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the head of the Moritomo Gakuen brought this topic up at least 15 times in the period of 2013-2016.

In general, while everything looks rather grim for the sitting Prime Minister, since the opposition forces are definitely planning to exploit every little detail of this matter. Meanwhile, the price of this scandal has suddenly become extremely high. Abe remains one of the most influential politicians of modern Japan, and he has had intentions his former electoral triumphs in 2018, by getting reelected as the leader of the ruling party in order to bring it to victory in in the upcoming parliamentary elections . A month ago, this goal seemed perfectly attainable for Abe.

However, the ruling party is closing ranks around Abe, while showing no trace of panic. On March 5, the Liberal Democratic Party leaders decided to allow Abe to put run for the president of the party for the third time in September 2018 for the third time.

In addition, it doesn’t seem likely that such a scandal could be the end of Abe’s political career. There can be no doubt that his faithful spouse will attempt to take all the blame for this scandal on herself, since she was the reason that the name Abe was even mentioned in this local case.

This will contribute to the image of Akie Abe as an active political figure who has repeatedly shown her skills in public relations. She adheres to much more right-wing views than her powerful spouse, presenting a “home opposition” to him. So a regular reader will buy the version about the absolute ignorance of the Prime Minister in this case, with the case being transformed in a private affair between his wife and the Moritomo Gakuen management.

And why not? After all, we’re living in the era of gender equality.

Vladimir Terekhov, expert on the issues of the Asia-Pacific region, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”