Radical reformer

Book review of The Iconoclast: Shinzo Abe and the New Japan

Tobias Harris has produced a very readable biography of Shinzo Abe. He has been prescient in anticipating the end phase of the Abe era, pointing to missteps in handling the Covid-19 pandemic and a general air of exhaustion in government. 

Mr Abe has demitted office after being Japan’s longest-serving prime minister. Longstanding health reasons were cited as the cause. His close and loyal aide, Yoshihide Suga, is now prime minister charged with carrying forward Mr Abe’s legacy. He was determined to exorcise the pacific and defensive sentiments of the post-war years in Japan, enable it to emerge as a “normal” country