https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18714/shinzo-abe
Perhaps Abe’s most enduring contribution to the Japanese people was successfully to mold their thinking into accepting a greater responsibility for Free World defense.
Abe’s calm demeanor, diplomatic comportment and clarity of thought on strategic security issues helped enable the rapid evolution of the “QUAD” alliance (US, Japan, Australia and India) into a formidable bulwark against Chinese Communist expansionism in the Indo-Pacific.
Abe’s most significant contribution to strengthening security in the Indo-Pacific Region may yet materialize: to amend Japan’s post World War II Constitution to allow Tokyo more aggressively to project military power in the South and East China Seas. Such as addition would be a great boost to Free Asia’s hope to keep the Indo-Pacific secure and free. It is to be hoped that all countries in the region will follow in Abe’s extraordinary footsteps.
Shinzo Abe, the most influential Japanese leader since World II, ushered in accomplishments that were transformative both in Japan’s role as a democratic power in the Indo-Pacific Region and as a dynamic player in international affairs. His aggressive initiatives on defense issues significantly strengthened the US-Japanese Alliance, just as China’s expansionist aspirations in the South and East China Seas were peaking; he continued to push for an increase in Japan’s defense budget right up to his assassination.