Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe recently announced his resignation coming as a result of his recently worsening health. Abe suffers from ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease, and he apologized to the Japanese people for failing to complete his term in office.

This is not the first time that this has happened to the former Japanese prime minister. He resigned in 2007 because of his struggles with his ulcerative colitis, a chronic condition which he has lived with since he was a teenager.

Abe returned to power in 2012 and became Japan’s longest serving prime minister as of this year. He served as President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since 2012, a ‘catch-all’ party broadly defined as being to the right of the political spectrum. The LDP’s political inclinations are closely aligned with conservatism and Japanese nationalism.

Shinzo Abe Restored Economic Growth to Japan

Two of the former prime minister’s crowning achievements are restoring economic growth and increasing spending on defense.

Following his return to power, Abe announced in his 2013 policy speech to the Diet that economic revival and ending deflation was ‘the greatest and most urgent issue’ facing Japan. “Abenomics,” the term used to describe his economic strategy, consisted of the “three arrows” (an allusion to an old Japanese story) of policy.

The first arrow meant monetary expansion aimed at achieving a 2 percent inflation target. The second referred to a flexible fiscal policy to act as an economic stimulus in the short-term, and the third arrow was a growth strategy focused on structural reform and private sector investment to achieve long-term growth. He also wanted to achieve a budget surplus.

Abe Did Not Achieve All His Economic Aims

In 2013, the Japanese Government said that its country was expected to achieve nominal GDP growth of 2.7 percent that year, exceeding real GDP growth for the first time in 16 years.

However, in the second quarter of 2014, GDP fell to an annualized 1.6 percent from July to September, which resulted in a recession that year.

By April-June 2018, Japan’s economy grew at its fastest pace since 2016 because of capital spending rising more quickly than earlier estimated, with revised Cabinet Office data showing that the economy grew by 3.0 percent during that time.

Yet by 2019, Abe failed to achieve his 2 percent inflation target.

Abe’s Government was Crippled by Scandals

Also, in January 2020 Abe was forced to delay his aim of achieving a budget surplus until 2027 before the coronavirus further impacted upon Japan’s economy. This is because of the significant debt burden facing Japan, which is more than the size of its ¥551 trillion economy, and politicians have struggled to keep it in check due to spiraling social security costs.

Abe may not have achieved his budget surplus and inflation targets, but he can be credited with restoring economic growth despite a recession in 2014.

Under the former prime minister’s watch, defense spending increased by 10 percent after years of decline, and the Self-Defense Forces’ ability to project power abroad was expanded due to a reinterpretation of the country’s constitution in 2014. Mr. Abe kept his promise to bolster the nation’s defenses.

The Former PM Has Much to be Proud of

Abe’s final days in office were haunted by a scandal that occurred in December 2019. Lower House member Tsukasa Akimoto was apprehended and left the LDP after being arrested for alleged bribery. By this point, the former prime minister’s approval ratings were suffering. His government was accused of favoritism and when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, it was accused of being slow. Abe also failed to reform Japan’s constitution.

The former prime minister will be remembered for restoring economic growth to Japan and for improving Japan’s defenses at a time when China posed an increasing threat to Tokyo. Sadly, Abe’s government became increasingly ineffective during his final days in power due to scandals and slowness. This proved how tired he became toward the end.

Regarding his economic and military achievements, Abe has a lot to be proud of.

L'articolo What is Shinzo Abe’s Legacy in Japan? proviene da InsideOver.

North Korea is the most sealed-off country in the world and it is difficult to verify what happens within its borders. Crime stories, secrets, mysteries, leaks, rumors, unconfirmed reports and often fully-fledged fake news frequently emerge and are hard to sort out. It is hard for anybody who does not live in North Korea to verify what happens within its borders. It is for this reason, in other words the chronic lack of confirmed reports, that matters relating to the ”Hermit Kingdom” should always be treated with caution and skepticism.

Manipulating the Western View of North Korea

The North Korean political system has learned quickly to leverage the western media’s atavistic hunger for news to mock their way of thinking. Over the years the script has always been the same: beyond the 38th parallel something strange is happening and as nobody can go there and check what is going on foreign journalists make assumption after assumption. At the end of the day, after all sorts of suppositions have been put forward, everything returns to normal and the supposed oddity proves to be a nothing burger.

This is exactly what happened recently in the case of Kim Jong Un. North Korea’s leader had disappeared from the scene for 21 days before returning to the spotlight at the inauguration of a fertilizer factory. No, it is not the first time that Pyongyang has left so many people at a loss. In the past there have been other mysterious episodes that have given rise to all kinds of speculation.

The Mysterious ‘Death’ of Kim Il Sung

The first thriller worthy of note dates back to 1986 when virtually all the international press wrote that Kim Jong Un’s grandfather and former leader of the country Kim Il Sung had been assassinated. The Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun endorsed the theory that the grandfather of the current North Korean President ”had been killed by high-ranking officers of the armed forces following an alleged pro-Chinese conspiracy by members of the army opposed to the rapprochement between North Korea and the USSR.”

There were various versions of the supposed attack: an assault on the presidential train replete with submachine guns and bombs, an attack on the leader’s armored car, a shootout and even a killing that occurred during an inspection. The North Korean diplomats abroad immediately denied the reconstructions, branding them pure fabrications.

In South Korea the Chosun Ilbo newspaper went further, writing that the loudspeakers on the border between the two Koreas had confirmed the death of Kim Il Sung and that along the border North Korean flags were flying at half-mast as a sign of mourning. The denials issued by Japanese and American sources were of little use: the world thought that Kim’s grandfather was now dead.

Shortly after the international media announcement, Kim Il Sung appeared alive and well at Pyongyang airport where he greeted a Mongolian delegation visiting the country. The South Korean newspaper Chosun did not publish a correction regarding the false news that had been spread. However, the newspaper did finally apologize for the story last month on the centenary of its founding.

The Uncle and Aunt Who Disappeared

As regards more recent times, it is worth focusing on another mystery worthy of note. Jang Song Thaek was — or, according to some, still is — Kim Jong Un’s uncle. In his political career he has held, among other things, the prestigious position of Vice-Chairman of the National Defence Committee. Experts said he should have led the peaceful transition of power from Kim Jong Il to Kim Jong Un. In other words, after the death of Kim’s father, Song Thaek should have prepared the current North Korean leader’s entry into politics.

In realty things went quite differently because Kim Jong Un came to power immediately after his father’s death in December, 2011. Traces of his uncle were lost in November 2013, when, as Daily Nk writes, he was arrested during a Politburo meeting and relieved of all his posts. He would later be tried for planning a coup and executed in the same year at the age of 67. The international media added a rather macabre detail: according to unspecified sources, Kim allegedly had his relative torn to pieces by dogs. Exaggeration or reality? Almost all experts are inclined to support the first option.

In any case, Jong Song Thaek magically reappeared a few years later in a photo released by a documentary broadcast by North Korean state television.

Could it have been a mistake by those who had edited the documentary or a sign that he intended to rehabilitate Kim’s uncle? But above all: was Kim’s uncle really killed or is he still alive?

There are many doubts because, among other things, Kim Kyong Hui, Song Thaek’s wife and Kim’s aunt, received similar treatment. The sister of Kim Jong Il — father of the current leader — disappeared from the scene in 2013, only to reappear in January 2020. In a photo published by North Korean media, the lady was sitting next to her nephew in a Pyongyang theatre on the occasion of new year celebrations.

The Assassination of Kim’s brother

Kim Jong Nam, Kim Jong Un’s half-brother, was killed with nerve gas on February 13, 2017 at Kuala Lumpur Airport in Malaysia. Thanks to the video surveillance footage, the local authorities discovered his killers, two women, Doan Thi Huong and Siti Aisha.

According to the reconstruction of the investigators the killers of Jong Nam caught up with the man at the airport of the Malaysian capital where they threw a deadly substance in his face. Kim’s half-brother died about ten minutes after the actions of the two women. He reported it to airport authorities, but his death occurred in an ambulance while rescue workers tried to transport the prominent North Korean to the hospital. Pyongyang immediately said that it was not responsible for the incident.

For their part, the two women arrested claimed they did not know what substance they had thrown in Jong Nam’s face and explained that the action was supposed to be a TV prank. In the next few days, other people were arrested, including North Koreans. In 2017, the Wall Street Journal revealed a sensational piece of information: Kim Jong Nam was a CIA source but did not add further details. This story too will probably remain an unsolved mystery.

The ‘Death’ of Kim Jong Un

The latest episode concerns Kim Jong Un who reappeared on May 1 after his absence had triggered rumours that he might have been seriously ill or even in a vegetative state. What happened? The leader disappeared from public view on 11 April. Twenty days later, the North Korean state media gave news of the President on the occasion of Labor Day.

North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) claims that Kim attended a ceremony for the completion of a fertilizer factory near Pyongyang with other senior officials, including his sister Kim Yo Jong. Videos and photos show the President wearing a black suit and constantly smiling, walking around the buildings, applauding and cutting a huge red ribbon with some scissors delivered by his sister Kim Yo Jong. Speculation about his health spread across the world after Kim failed to attend the birthday celebrations of his late grandfather on April 15.
Yet despite his appearance, numerous doubts remain. Some claim that photos and videos circulated by Pyongyang are bogus while others speculate that Kim may be alive and well but that he may have undergone an operation. Like so many other things in North Korea the exact truth remains — for now — a mystery.

L'articolo Unsolved North Korean Mysteries proviene da InsideOver.

Enchanted cities with legendary histories, young people addicted to video games in the neon-lit streets of modern metropolises, strict family rules that still affect the lives of millions. These are the stories that make up this report and help to reveal the thousand faces of China. The crisis caused by the spread of the COVID-19 has changed the paradigm not only of Chinese politics and society, but also of the whole world, with some unique features seen in China. More and more young people in China are attracted to video games, which also represent a real business capable of moving millions of dollars. Alongside the glitter of video games, however, a dark side also emerges: that of addiction. To try to cure it, several centers — sometimes even controversial ones — have been created to fight video game addiction through tough military-style training. Alongside the young people, however, a large part of China is increasing growing older. In 2019 the number of newborns in the Asian country was the lowest in the last sixty years and the birth rate stopped at 1.04%. Getting married is also not easy. The expenses that new couples have to face to start a family are often too high. The average cost to raise a child up to the age of 16 is estimated to be around 490,000 yuan, (about 65,000 Euros). This is too high a cost by Chinese standards. Finally, there is Huaxi, “the village paradise.” A true paradise city where the descendants of the founding families receive villas of 400 square meters by birthright as well as health care, education and a range of exclusive comforts. Huaxi is a village that has nothing to do with the reality in other more rural areas of China and which demonstrates the great contradictions of the Asian giant.

L'articolo The Thousand Faces of China proviene da InsideOver.