Following neatly on from Louise’s excellent post Japanese PM Abe has given a hard-hitting interview to the Wall St Journal published earlier today.
In it he sets his sights on China’s domination of the Asia-Pacific region and says he realised at the latest AP summit that many nations were looking for leadership from Tokyo.
There are concerns that China is attempting to change the status quo by force, rather than by rule of law. But if China opts to take that path, then it won’t be able to emerge peacefully. So it shouldn’t take that path, and many nations expect Japan to strongly express that view. And they hope that as a result, China will take responsible action in the international community.
PM Abe has accumulated unusual power for a Japanese leader, steering his party this year to unified control of parliament, riding the popularity of his economic program. A quick dose of “Abenomics” has given Japan the fastest-growing economy and stock market of the advanced economies this year. But he says
I am aware of the various criticism over my growth strategy. It may lack the flashy sort of features, but I think what is important is the outcome.
He said he expected the economy to be dragged down by the tax increase effect from April to June, and the key would be how it recovers afterward.
I would like to watch carefully how much it can recover in July, August and September. And then I’ll make an appropriate decision
The full interview can be found at the WSJ site
