<figure id="attachment_218110" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 3196px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-218110"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="167a4ecc"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2021/12/KIN_0203.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-218110" class="wp-caption-text">Former Prime Minister Abe giving a speech (courtesy of attendees)</figcaption></figure>
Former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori (84), former Speaker of the House of Representatives Fumiaki Fumiaki (83), former Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato (66), former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (67), and other LDP heavyweights took the stage one after another to congratulate the opposition House of Councillors member, who has served time in prison. The 73-year-old lawmaker, who is known as the &#8220;Terminator of the North,&#8221; was full of vigor and vitality. &#8230;&#8230;
On November 29, a &#8220;pep rally&#8221; for Muneo Suzuki, a member of the House of Councillors belonging to The Japan Innovation Party, was held at a hotel in Tokyo and was filled with enthusiasm.
Takako Suzuki, 35, a member of the House of Representatives and Mr. Muneo&#8217;s daughter and Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, served as the MC. Takako Suzuki, 35, a member of the House of Representatives, who is the daughter of Muneo and the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, emceed the event, drawing laughter with her self-deprecating greeting, &#8220;As far as I know, I&#8217;m the only daughter.
Mr. Ibuki, the top guest of honor, skipped the first part of the speech. He talked about the Kitsuregawa Social Rehabilitation Center in Tochigi, where Mr. Muneo was imprisoned in 1983, the same year he was elected.
 He said, &#8220;I have had a checkered life and have been in places where I could not enter even if I wanted to. I was introduced to a place with good facilities and treatment. When I asked, they gave me a lot of visiting hours.&#8221;
It is probably because Mr. Muneo worked hard as a model prisoner. I would like to believe that he was not given preferential treatment because he was a politician. &#8230;&#8230; Incidentally, there are only three people who were elected in 1983 who still remain in Nagata-cho: former secretary general Toshihiro Nikai, former secretary general Akira Amari, and former finance minister Fukushiro Nukaga.
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<figure id="attachment_218111" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 6000px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-218111"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="6b7d4cc9"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2021/12/KIN_0280.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-218111" class="wp-caption-text">Mr. Abe gives a speech and Mr. Muneo Suzuki listens with a nod (courtesy of an attendee)</figcaption></figure>
Muneo&#8217;s current affiliation is with The Japan Innovation Party. However, the politicians who appeared and were named were all LDP politicians. It is neither an opposition party nor a ruling party, but rather an ambiguous &#8220;yuto&#8221; (a party in the middle of &#8220;yayo&#8221;). Perhaps because of this, it was a political fundraiser where it was difficult to tell which party the speaker belonged to. The best part was that the lecturer was former Prime Minister Abe.
 He said, &#8220;You can print a 10,000 yen bill for 20 yen. I asked the Bank of Japan to print bills for me.
Waving his hands in the air, he praised himself for Abenomics, and continued.
 He continued, &#8220;Prime Minister Kishida&#8217;s &#8216;new capitalism&#8217; is a virtuous cycle of growth and distribution. In fact, I said the same thing to the Abe administration. The mission of politics is to create jobs and provide opportunities for those who want to work. Before we came to power, the effective job offer ratio was 0.52, and only eight prefectures had a ratio of more than one. During the Democratic Party of Japan&#8217;s (DPJ) term, the effective job offer ratio did not exceed 1, but it has now risen to 1.18, and the effective ratio for general workers has exceeded 1 in all 47 prefectures.
 Isn&#8217;t this the first time that a government has come to power with a macroeconomic agenda? I had thought that monetary policy should be left to the Bank of Japan and not to politicians. We thought that if we worked on monetary policy, employment would recover.
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
Perhaps reflecting on his repeated emphasis on the results of Abenomics, he said, &#8220;I&#8217;m not sure why I&#8217;m saying this.
 The reason I&#8217;m saying this is that for the past year or so, after I left office, the opposition parties have been actively saying that Abenomics is a failure. If I were prime minister, I would have had a chance to refute them, but I don&#8217;t have a chance, so I&#8217;m doing it here.
After his praise of Abenomics, he touched on Japan-U.S. diplomacy. After praising Abenomics, he touched on Japan-U.S. diplomacy, saying that he frequently played golf with former U.S. President Donald Trump during their summit meetings.
 Why do we play golf? In golf, you play together for a long time. If North Korea fires a missile at us, we call the U.S. president and ask him to retaliate because Japan doesn&#8217;t have the power to hit us. North Korea will not launch missiles because the US might retaliate. I played golf with President Trump because we are such good friends, and we were playing golf for deterrence, saying, &#8216;If Abe calls, Trump will retaliate.
He also praised the security bill himself.
 President Trump said, &#8220;If Japan is attacked by North Korea, we will fight, but if the US is attacked, Japan will just sit back and watch Sony TV. President Trump kept saying, &#8216;If North Korea attacks Japan, we&#8217;ll fight them, but if the U.S. attacks Japan, we&#8217;ll just sit back and watch Sony TV. &#8216;That&#8217;s why I created the Peace and Security Law and turned Japan and the United States into an alliance that can help each other. When I said, &#8216;That&#8217;s why I lost 10 percent of my approval rating,&#8217; President Trump said, &#8216;Great!　You&#8217;re a samurai.'&#8221;
He then went on to praise Mr. Muneo&#8217;s skills, referring to the negotiations for the peace treaty that took place over 27 summits with President Putin.
During the former prime minister&#8217;s 30-minute speech, Mr. Muneo stood erect, sometimes smiling and shaking his head exaggeratedly from side to side when he was praised. He has lived through a checkered political life. After a nine-year gap between unsuccessful elections, arrest, detention, imprisonment, and suspension of his civil rights, he returned to the House of Councillors as a member of The Japan Innovation Party. After a nine-year gap, she has returned to the House of Councillors as a member of The Japan Innovation Party. I guess it is understandable that her support transcends party lines.
<figure id="attachment_218113" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 6000px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-218113"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="b1d2c9d5"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2021/12/KIN_0017.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-218113" class="wp-caption-text">A message from Chiharu Matsuyama</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_218114" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 4000px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-218114"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="cb13625b"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2021/12/KIN_0008.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-218114" class="wp-caption-text">There was a large notice in the hotel.</figcaption></figure>

 Daisuke Iwasaki

 Takeshi Kinugawa

 Former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori (84), former Speaker of the House of Representatives Fumiaki Fumiaki (83), former Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato (66), and former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (67), among other LDP heavyweights, took the stage one after another to congratulate the opposition party's upper house member, who has served time in prison.73

Former Prime Minister Abe’s “Self-Praise Speech” at an Unusual Party

Access Ranking