Join us as we delve into the multifaceted legacy of Shinzo Abe, Japan's longest-serving Prime Minister. This video explores Abe's significant political impact through his pronatalist policies, military reforms, and deep ties to the Unification Church. We'll analyze his efforts to foster women's participation in the workforce, reinterpret Japan's pacifist constitution, and strengthen alliances through the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue. Additionally, we discuss Abe's influence on Japanese media and culture, including anime. The video also covers Abe's relationship with Donald Trump, the complex history with the Unification Church, and the circumstances surrounding his assassination. Engaging and insightful, this is a comprehensive look at Shinzo Abe's celebrated and criticized legacy.

Malcolm Collins: [00:00:00 ] Hello, Simone! Today occasionally I will go down a rabbit hole and I'll be like, this is something I really wish I could find a good succinct video on because now it's a topic that interests me.

And this topic is The Harambee of pronatalism, Shinzo Abe. I have just seen so many pronatalist Shinzo Abe memes of him trying to promote fertility. And then after the recent thing happened, which we'll go into where people in Japan became convinced that Shinzo Abe from the dead had told Trump to move to avoid being assassinated.

And it's just amazing. So first I'm going to bring the audience along with me. On a journey through some memes about Shinzo Abe. Then we're going to go into who he actually was, like what did he accomplish in his life? How pronatalist was he really? And then we're going to go into the assassination.

And then we're going to go into the, what [00:01:00 ] led to the assassination.

Simone Collins: All right,

Malcolm Collins: then. So we're starting with meme number one of Shinzo Abe here, which is him holding a gun out. And what does it say, Simone?

Simone Collins: . It says, stop watching VTubers, you stinky neets. Do your duty, have sex. I'm no longer asking. I

Malcolm Collins: love this.

The next one I love, and this is something that as I first started, like, going into Shinzo Abe, I really realized how well liked he was within like, meme community. So here's one that's a political compass that shows a former Former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe shot dead, and it shows people on all sides of the political compass sad about this, but then the next political compass one, which I think is more true, shows everybody horrified except for the authoritarian lefties who are Hooray, death to Japan.

I'm coming. It says, and it shows from China News, like from one of their main sources. And all of the, you know, far, far [00:02:00 ] commies, they're being like you know, don't be stunned, celebrate stuff like that. So horrified. But I think what this shows is that the only people who were really happy that he died were the Was the crazy like pro china people which again if you're not pro china should make you love him even more And this was something that a lot of people were saying the analysis of him that made me want to learn more about him Is that one longest serving pm in the history?

I think of japan so very very popular person and people were like they don't understand like Japan losing him and some of the analysis I saw they said could significantly hurt the country because he was so effective at everything he did. For the next meme here this takes place in the friend universe.

And it starts with the character saying

Elves may live a long time. Oh, that's good! But across the board, we lack romantic feelings and reproductive instincts.

Wait, hold on.

We're quietly going extinct.

Huh?

Last time [00:03:00 ] I met a fellow elf was more than 400 years ago.

Sigh.

Perhaps we're closer to the end than I thought.

We're too late this time. You doing a girl voice, by the way, is so out of character for you. Here, do the next meme.

Simone Collins: Well, I read that a boy and a girl can create new life by joining their bodies together. Can create new life by joining their bodies together

Malcolm Collins: She's

Simone Collins: like

yes It's

Malcolm Collins: korobo and mitsubo are having their fourth and then it shows senzuabe My job here is done. And then this is one of my favorite where this was after the assassination and it shows a picture of like the scenery of Japan with Shinzo Abe's face fading out.

And it just says have sex in big letters. And then on the, the, the bottom, right. It says see you space cowboy,

Simone Collins: which was the outro from cowboy bebop.

Malcolm Collins: Yes, which was really got to [00:04:00 ] me So now I'm going to talk a bit about the the really funny thing that happened. Well, not funny, but I guess touching and there's memes about like women, like I cry at the Titanic men don't cry over anything.

And it shows the band like crying over memes of Shinzo Abe protecting Trump from the assassination. But this makes sense. They were, they did have a very, very strong relationship and we'll get into why this was the case in just a second.

Simone Collins: I

Malcolm Collins: don't know. But here in a Japanese Twitter post, it says during his speech, Trump heard Shinzo Abe's voice calling him to attention in his ear.

When he tilted his head to listen to the voice, he heard the sound of a bullet cutting through the air and the bullet penetrated Trump's right ear. And he heard a gunshot. If Trump had not tried to listen to Abe's voice, he would have been killed by the bullet. And for people who are like, wait, why would a lot of people in Japan actually believe this?

Well, a big group of that liked Shinzo Abe was extremist Christians, specifically the Unification Church, specifically the Moonies, who would have believed something like this was possible. And people were memeing about this in the [00:05:00 ] West, and they thought it was serious. Well, apparently that was

Simone Collins: why Shinzo Abe was shot, right?

It was this, the guy who shot him was Yeah, it was the Unification Church. It was against the church. And I

Malcolm Collins: mean, in light of all these memes, you can think, Oh, these memes are so silly, etc. One of my favorites has always been the what I watched, which it shows Franks and it goes what I expected, which is Gurren Lagann and then it's a gif of what I got.

It's Shinzo Abe's face pointing at the screen and occasionally it flashes, have sex.

Microphone (Wireless Microphone Rx)-1: My very favorite Shinzo, Abe meme. I found after we recorded this episode.

It shows a post from our Reddit, which is verse the patriarchy,

some other witches have mentioned that doing spells directly against Trump are not as effective as we might hope. And he seems to have some kind of protection around him. And then they brought quote, unquote, some kind of protection around him and it shows Cynthia Bobby's face in the background.

Malcolm Collins: And here's a great one, which is a political compass one, which shows why Shinzo Abe was so well liked [00:06:00 ] show. It shows you know, people being shocked at his death and it shows people at every side of the political compass sad, but shows why they're sad.

So the authoritarian left, he oversaw 15 percent real increase in minimum wage while dropping unemployment to under 3%. That was left the authoritarian. righty authoritarian. He worked to ensure Japan could stand with America and protect democracy in Taiwan when the day comes. And then because he rebuilt Japan's military and then at the libertarian right, it just shows the economy going up under his leadership.

And then in the Libertarian left. It shows his policies open the door to ensure millions of women were able to join the workforce. And I just think that that's really cool. This, this guy who is so universally liked and I wanted to understand, and I will say that when I dug on him deeper, I didn't necessarily come away universally liking him.

Interesting. Well,

Simone Collins: that's what I was just going to ask you. Was he universally liked because he was shot because he was assassinated? No,

Malcolm Collins: it was universally liked before that, [00:07:00 ] but unfortunately his reputation took a hit in the investigation of the person who shot him. Because the person who shot him had, he didn't have no point.

He should, he

Simone Collins: should have written a sternly worded letter, you're saying, maybe a

Malcolm Collins: sternly worded letter, but Shinzo Abe may have facilitated a cult that destroyed a lot of people's lives and used the cult to stay in power, really. Yes. Now whether you consider it a cult or a religion, I mean, it could be like people saying, well, you guys do the same with like, I don't know, you know, being overly positive about Mormons, people who are like really anti Mormon and think of it as a cult,

and I'd be like, one, I don't think we're that overly positive Mormon, but like if they became like a major voting block for us and we were running and then they blamed us, like I could see, I don't know. Because I don't think the, the unification church is a much more culty cult than the, the Mormons, but we'll get into them in a second.

Simone Collins: Yeah, well then it would have to be if Tom Cruise was president, but then someone assassinated him because, you know, [00:08:00 ]