Premier Abe and Yasukuni Shrine

Premier Abe didn't visit Yasukuni Shrine on August 15th of this year (2013), the reasons being 1) the Chinese Communist Party ("CCP") and South Korea ("SK") would have made a lot of noise if he had visited the shrine , 2) Senator Robert Menendez, Chairman of Senator Foreign Relations Committee of the US exerted pressure on Abe not to visit the shrine, and 3) poison snakes internally in the Liberal Democratic Party ("LDP") impeded Abe's will to visit the shrine.

He said, "I really regretted not visiting Yasukuni" when Abe was elected Prime Minister about four years ago. He was quite determined that he would visit Yasukuni on August 15th this year, but owing to the reasons above, he changed his mind.

Come to think about this important incident, I can see that Abe doesn't have a strategy. Any strategy includes risk and crisis management. He lacked management ability for both. When he mentioned his intention to visit Yasukuni, he must have gone through research on probable and prospective issues which may exert negative influence on his intention.

His speeches as a statesman are carefully examined by many people including politically influential people in the world. He mixed up personal wishes and political statements. Many Japanese supporters of Abe must have believed that he would visit Yasukuni.

In my opinion, the critical cause for him to have given up on visiting Yasukuni could be due to the pressure from Senator Menendez, who obviously could have been manipulated by President Obama. I have a strong feeling that the Obama Administration does not want to get involved in the conflicting situation between Japan and CCP over the issue of the Senkaku Islands.

I know Obama wants to keep his promise which he made for all American citizens to have the medical insurance scheme. However, if the US continues to be the world number one military nation to police the world, the budget for the medical insurance scheme will be insufficient.

Obama's prime concern now is focused on not international issues but domestic issues. He wants Abe to be patient with the provocations coming from CCP and SK. Senator Menandez is only a puppet of Obama who is behind the show.

Abe didn't expect this to happen because he lacked risk management. He didn't establish a trustworthy conduit between him and Obama. Moreover, he didn't have a team to consistently and persistently inform the Obama Administration of Abe's political beliefs and philosophy. In other words, Abe didn't understand Obama well, who was annoyed with critical issues existing between Japan, CCP and SK.

Again, here is a Japan specific problem existing. As I said in the first post on this Blogger, Japanese are culturally unassertive. Abe was no exception. He didn't think it necessary to explain to Obama over and over about his political philosophy and beliefs honestly.

There is the fourth reason, which is that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan ("MOFA") didn't support Abe actively. About this issue, I will write more in a separate post.  What I can say just simply here is that MOFA has poison snakes for Abe.