Leftist American President Joe Biden, skipping the funeral of longtime Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, signaled to Japan that “he’s more worried about the midterms than the threat of China and Russia,” Japanese conservative journalist and commentator Yoko Ishii told Breitbart News in an exchange on Friday.
Abe, one of the most influential conservative politicians in modern Japanese history and Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, was killed in a shocking public assassination during a campaign stop in July to support candidates belonging to his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). He had stepped down from the prime ministership due to health issues in 2020, leaving a formidable leadership void that the LDP is still struggling to fill under current Prime Minister Kishida Fumio.
Much of Abe’s tenure at the helm of the government was spent building bridges with the government of America and bringing Japan closer into Washington’s sphere of influence — much to the chagrin of the Chinese communist regime, which allowed citizens to openly celebrate his murder. Abe spent his last days prominently urging the world to defend the nation of Taiwan in the face of increasingly violent threats from communist China, which falsely claims Taiwan as a “province” under the Communist Party. Abe equated China’s threats toward Taiwan to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and proclaimed in one of his final columns, “the time has come for the U.S. to make clear that it will defend Taiwan against any attempted Chinese invasion.”
Biden chose not to attend the funeral, instead sending Vice President Kamala Harris.
Ishii, a journalist who shares foreign policy and Japanese political analysis on YouTube under the moniker Random Yoko, had been among the loudest voices urging Biden to show solidarity with Japan by attending Abe’s funeral. This week, she lamented that Biden had failed to take advantage of a critical diplomatic opportunity to strengthen the region’s resolve to contain China’s authoritarian influence.
“After Shinzo Abe was assassinated, our government set the state funeral date as two months later, meaning they gave plenty of time to arrange the schedule for the world leaders,” Ishii observed in an interview with Breitbart News on Friday. “Biden declined soon after the announcement/invitation, saying he can’t come due to his schedule. From Quad, all the current leaders were there except for Biden.”
The “Quad,” or Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, is an unofficial union consisting of America, Australia, India, and Japan organized to cooperate primarily in protecting the Indo-Pacific region from Chinese colonization — China has been illegally constructing military facilities in the South China Sea for nearly a decade. The group shares critical intelligence and resources to protect against the growing threat of China.
Ishii said that she interpreted Biden’s absence from the funeral as meaning that “he’s more worried about the midterms than the threat of China and Russia. China and Russia probably took the silent message in the same way.”
“I wonder who benefits from that political message he’s sending as a result,” she added.
Ishii stated that, in general, Japanese people appeared “grateful” that Harris attended the funeral, but “it would have been much better and significant if POTUS himself had shown up, considering the need for taking over Japan-US alliance which Abe made stronger and for standing together to deal with the rising threats of China and Russia.”
As for Harris herself, she noted that the vice president “doesn’t leave any special impression or presence, to be honest,” and Ishii expressed mostly relief that Harris did not make any significant gaffes while in Japan: “What’s good of her visit might be that there was no mistake or accident in her diplomacy.”
Harris went on to depart Japan for South Korea, where she proudly celebrated America’s “alliance with the Republic of North Korea [sic].”
Abe’s state funeral was met with some controversy in Japan over its high price tag and the fact that he was not in office when he died. Ishii accused corporate media in Japan, which she likened to corporate media in America, of greatly exaggerating opposition to the funeral and equating it to distaste for Abe himself.
“It’s true that the polls showed that Japanese people were divided over whether or not we agree on having the State Funeral. At first, it wasn’t like that because we were in a huge shock and we wanted to do our best to give a proper ceremony for such a charismatic, longest-serving, amazing leader that was violently taken away from us,” Ishii explained to Breitbart News. “The Japanese government set the date [for] two months after the assassination, probably to arrange the schedule and prepare — and in the meantime, our MSM campaigned negatively in every way possible to brainwash our people.”
Ishii acknowledged that some protested the funeral this week but argued they were disproportionately older, left-wing people.
“All the pictures and footage show that the protesters are mainly grey or white-haired old people. However, instead of showing them, the MSM outlets focused on one young woman, which I think was their tactic to change the impression of the protest,” Ishii said. “The biased reporting is very politically intentional and unfair.”
“What’s worse, in addition to overall leftists such as labor unions and socialists, many of those who were protesting were ‘Chukaku ha‘ (Core Faction) – Revolutionary Communist League National Committee,” Ishii continued. “They committed terrorist acts in the past. It’s a well-known fact that they’re a big part of the protesters because we can see them proudly showing the same flag and helmets that they were using back in the 1960-70s when they were young and trying to have a communist revolution.”
The Revolutionary Communist League National Committee’s website published a post this week inviting supporters to protest the funeral.
“On September 27th, let’s besiege the Nippon Budokan, the venue for the state funeral, with a large demonstration of anger by the workers,” the website urged. “Let’s further expand the class rally to revise the constitution, prevent war, and overthrow the Kishida government, and explode the anti-war struggle to stop the U.S.-Japan imperialist war of aggression against China!”
According to Ishii, the left is particularly opposed to honoring Abe because of his legacy in expanding Japan’s ability to engage in national defense and cooperate with allied militaries like America’s.
“In the first admin [Abe’s first term as prime minister] for example, he promoted the defense agency to Ministry of Defense. He worked on other laws together, but in 2015, the security bill passed, by which we got the right of collective defense,” Ishii explained.
Abe’s decisive popularity — he was elected six times in a row to lead — has largely hollowed out Japan’s left-wing establishment.
“The left couldn’t beat Abe in elections. They always lost. And now that Abe is gone, they’re insisting [on] all kinds of things including the opposition to Abe’s State Funeral ‘to attack Abe,'” Ishii said, “and by that, they’re trying to deny the achievements of him, which they couldn’t in political battles with him. Those protesters are using the State Funeral in an attempt of denying or erasing Abe’s amazing achievements.”
Ishii expressed little confidence in the left’s ability to succeed in turning the public against Abe himself, noting that mourners significantly outnumbered protesters this week.
“There were tens of thousands of [a] wide range of age groups lined up for hours to offer flowers for Abe, a lot being young in contrast to the protesters and some even traveling far from Tokyo,” Ishii noted, “and there were also over 300,000 people that offered digital flowers online through a special website which was launched by those who that are in their 20s and 30s mainly.”