Battlegrounds w/ H.R. McMaster | Japan: The Legacy Of Japan's Longest Serving Prime Minister

america and other free and open societies face crucial challenges and opportunities abroad that affect security and prosperity at home this is a series of conversations with guests who bring deep understanding of today's battlegrounds and creative ideas about how to compete overcome challenges capitalize on opportunities and secure a better future i am h.r mcmaster this is battlegrounds [Music] on today's episode of battlegrounds our guest is mr shinzo abe former prime minister of japan mr abe has been a member of the japanese diet japan's national legislature since 1993. mr abe was japan's longest-sitting prime minister serving from 2006 to 2007 and 2012 to 2020. prime minister abe left a lasting legacy in the history of japan upon his return to prime ministership he advanced an optimistic vision to help bring japan out of economic and political darkness following the 2011 great east japan earthquake his trademark economic policies dubbed ubinomics and his proactive diplomacy expanded japan's global influence prime minister abe's foreign and defence policies aimed to make a proactive contribution to peace he established the national security secretariat equivalent of the u.s national security council in 2013. released the first ever national security strategy in that same year and enacted the legislation for peace and security in 2016. he steered the reinterpretation of japan's constitution to expand the situations under which japan can exercise collective self-defense under the obama administration prime minister abe hosted president barack obama's visit to hiroshima and conducted his own visit to pearl harbor he was the first japanese leader to address a joint meeting of u.s congress where he described the unwavering japan u.s alliance as an alliance of hope prime minister abe maintained a close rapport with three u.s presidents but his gulf diplomacy with president donald trump from mar-a-lago to bedminster to tokyo received the most attention from the international press prime minister abe was the first world leader to elaborate the vision of a free and open indo-pacific he promoted cooperation among the quad of japan the united states australia and india to address emerging challenges in the region prime minister abe promoted international agreements to improve security and prosperity his government was a key player in the 2016 signing of the trans-pacific partnership and the establishment of the data free flow with trust initiative in 2019 prime minister abe fostered cooperation among world leaders including at the 2016 g7 isashima summit and as chair of the 2019 g20 osaka summit throughout his tenure prime minister abe confronted numerous foreign policy challenges including north korea's nuclear and missile programs and north korean abductions of japanese citizens territorial disputes and the pursuit of a peace treaty with russia tensions with the republic of korea and an increasingly aggressive chinese communist party his leadership raised japan's profile on the international stage he oversaw tokyo's successful bid to host the 2020 olympic and paralympic games at the 2013 ioc session in buenos aires and appeared in the closing ceremony of the rio olympic games in 2016 where he popped out of a pipe dressed as super mario we welcome prime minister abe to reflect on his legacy as prime minister hear his perspective on shared security challenges and contemplate the future for free and open societies in the indo-pacific and beyond prime minister abe welcome to battlegrounds it is an honor to host you working with you and your talented team was a highlight of my time as national security advisor and it's wonderful to see you again well general mcmaster it's been quite long since we last saw each other and it is a tremendous honor and pleasure for me to have a this conversation with you today uh today uh i certainly look forward to having a discussion with you uh featuring the security environment at this moment as well as the ways to strengthen japan's us alliance thank you prime minister and thank you especially for your leadership and your vision at a critical time i thought we might as well begin with what was our one of our top priorities anyway in in our in our work uh to uh to promote uh security and and prosperity for both our countries and and across the world uh i remember finally my first meeting with your national security advisor yatri shitaro and the issue of course at the top of our agenda then which was how to address the challenge from china and the chinese communist party seems today to be the priority really across the whole free world so i thought i might just begin by asking you about the security threat from china uh an expanding military that is continuing provocations against taiwan japan senkaku islands the south china sea india's himalayan frontier and really across the whole indo-pacific so i know our our audience would love to hear your view of the the military threats from china and then how does japan plan to address those threats well speaking of the location of japan japan is located just next to china with the thin strip of water next to each other so among all the g7 nations we are at the forefront when it comes to the impact and influence of china particularly in the context of the security and military affairs well speaking of the history of japan especially in the context of security affairs when we had the former ussr the fighters coming to ussr were the ones who intruded into the japanese adic of course at this moment we still see russian fighters intruding into the adic but mainly we are dealing with the flights of the chinese fighters entering the japanese adic and against such backdrop the japanese self-defense forces are now addressing this situation by having a series of scrambles in the last 30 years china has been rising totally and also very significant their military spending got increased by 42 times in the last 30 years and as of now their spending is almost four times as large as japanese defense spending so when you look at these numbers you can have the first hand understanding about the chinese intention and will and how with these ill will and determination china has been continuing its unilateral attempts to change the status quo uh in south china sea in east china sea and elsewhere in the world and then i returned to uh the post and role of the prime minister in japan at the end of 2012. and starting in the year 2013 i decided to materialize or unwavering determination to enhance japan's own defense capability before i came back as prime minister japan has had been cutting its defense spending for 10 consecutive years but since i came back we successfully increased the national defense spending every and year as part of my administration's initiative japan has decided to deploy a total of 147 and 35 jets and this process has already began and also my administration has decided to deploy stand-off missiles as part of japan's defense effort and starting 2021 fiscal year we also started to develop our own wrong range stun missile that could be fired from underground so uh along that line we have been making every effort to enhance japan's own defense capability when we look back the history we saw many instances and cases where one side had misunderstanding and underestimates the will and capability of the others and that eventually led confrontation or disputes so in that context i do believe that it remains very important for us to make china realize japan's determination and also have correct understanding about japan's capability and that will remain the key when i was a prime minister my direct conversation with president xi of china i specifically told him never to underestimate japan's unwavering determination as to our right uh over the senkaku islands and also as to the taiwan uh straits and the most recent japan he was summit meeting both leaders specifically underscore the importance of peace and stability across the taiwan strait in their joint statement and also the outcome of the g7 summit in cornwall the g7 leaders also specifically underscored this point and i do believe that these developments are extremely important by doing this effort we successfully demonstrated japan's unwavering will but also the unwavering determination of the alliance between japan and the united states together with the firm will of the g7 leaders as a whole so we successfully sent out a very robust message to china and some might say that the actions that we have been taking are challenging china but that is not the case by doing this we are sending a robust message to china and also demonstrating our will and our capability of the alliance as well as the individual nation state and also moving forward i do think that sending out such a message to china will encourage china to realize that it will be unproductive and it will not serve their interest if china sticks to its policy and constantly expanding near intelligence and i do think that through our message we're now showing china which way that they should untake and also which direction that they should aim for in the role and security by doing that we'll be able to avoid china's miscalculation or misunderstanding and through that we'll be able to avoid any confrontation with china so this messaging will be the key for us as we move forward the prime minister i i agree with you that really the key is to deter conflict with china and that can only be done through strength and i think of course the and i know that you believe that the japan u.s alliance is critical to demonstrating that strength i often mention the speech that you gave in front of the joint session of congress that that was very eloquent in connection with the importance of the alliance and the miracle of the alliance and and you made every effort to strengthen uh the alliance militarily you mentioned some of the measures you also included uh and worked on the reinterpretation of the constitution which would enable japan to which is enabling japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense in in certain situations in an environment of of growing threats and i just wondered if you could share with our viewers what your top priorities are for strengthening japan u.s cooperation uh including in the security area maybe especially in the area of security against the backdrop of the military rights of china uh i elaborated my views uh on the need for japan to establish a robust defense posture in the year 2012 i came back as a prime minister and next year in 2013 my administration decided to establish a national security secretariat and also we for the first time in the history of japan released the japanese national security strategy general just mentioned my address to the joint section of the u.s congress and as you may recall as part of my address i highlighted the contribution and sacrifice made by the u.s forces especially under the operation tomodachi in the aftermath of the great east japan earthquake thanks to how this operation in the united states has saved so many lives of japanese people and in that address i he told the audience that i still vividly recall every contribution made by the usa in congo in view of potential contingency my determination was to transform our alliance into something under which all japan and the united states can help each other and i do believe that by ensuring that the two sides can cope with each other we'll have more robust bond under the alliance under such thinking in the year 2014 i and my administration decided to change the interpretation of the constitution prior to that we had the interpretation that will not allow the exercise of collective self-defense right but i changed the interpretation and based on that my administration developed and enacted legislation for peace and security and thanks to the enactment of the legislation for peace and security japanese self-defense forces are now doing their operation uh for the asset protection of the us military assets in the surrounding environment of japan both the japanese airplanes fighter jets and vessels are now protecting american military assets and also in terms of the number of japan u.s joint training and exercises 20 years ago we only had 20 times per year but in the year 2020 then now the total number has become 49 so the entire number got more than doubled and that is a testament to what the legislation for peace and security brought for our alliance and i do think that our alliance has become much closer in practical sense under this new legislation specifically highlighted american commitment to the defense of japan including the application of article 5 of japan u.s security treaty to the senkaku islands and i highly value such outcome of the summit meeting and on top of that the two leaders decided to accelerate bilateral consultation and deliberation to enhance the alliance's returns as well as response capabilities in the new domains including outer space cyberspace as well as electromagnetic waves and i think the key for both sides will how we can achieve concrete outcome through such a steady consultation across all domains and also our alliance and our bilateral cooperation has it's not all about uh century affairs on top of our security cooperation we are taking number of initiatives in various areas including our collaboration in our effort to realize a free and open indo-pacific our bilateral cooperation in enhancing our competitive edge and also promoting innovation in the role of digital affairs as well as science and technology we do also continue our collaboration in the imminent challenges that we are facing such as the corona response and global health and also climate change is another big issue that we have been working the implementation of the paris accord as well as the development and application of clean technology as well as decarbonization and so the green growth will be another area that we have been working and the entire world is actually counting on us japan and the united states to bring tangible outcomes through these initiatives and if we are to successfully materialize our cooperation in these of the various areas i do think that we'll be able to further deepen our alliance prime minister i think this is a really important point is that the competition with china involves obviously an economic dimension as well but part of that is for us to maintain our competitive advantages working together to to develop and apply emerging and important technologies uh efforts to make supply chains more resilient coven 19 highlighted the urgent importance of that i know that you've recently taken on some additional responsibilities uh in in in parliament on on supply chain resiliency especially in connection with semiconductors and and then also uh as you mentioned uh aspects of energy security and how that relates to climate change so could you share with our viewers what more we have to do the united states japan uh to to maintain our competitive advantages in technology and from an economic perspective but this year due to the insufficient supply of the semi-conductors worldwide we have experienced the hold of the production of autos and that actually made us recognize that sinvine conductors are the indispensable foundation for any industry that we have at this moment and we all recognize importance and how we can make our supply chain more resilient the emerging technologies including semiconductors batteries and rare earth have direct implications of the nation's national security and that's why japan also decided to promote our interest in this area under a nation's strategy and speaking of my own party ldp i also decided to make every effort on this front and i myself have been serving as a product bearer uh to promote our economic security uh interest speaking of china's response they have been trying everything that they can enhance their industries under its own state capitalism but we as the like-minded nations also do everything we can to protect and promote our own industries and when you think about the involvement and encouragement from the national government you tend to focus on the aspect of protection of the state-of-the-art technologies such as the export control but having said that another aspect that we have to pay attention is the promotion we have to do everything we can to assist research and development as well as support our supply chains and in the role of economic security of course protection is important but what i'd like to underscore here is that we have to make these two requirements a protection and a promotion to be realized in this area mission that we have to achieve is to ensure that countries sharing fundamental values such as freedom democracy basic human rights the rule of law and fairness continue its cooperation and move forward in a concerted manner as i said earlier at the most recent japan u.s summit meeting both sides decided to continue deliberation on the bilateral cooperation and economic security role but we also need to do everything how we can to bring together the wisdom and strength of the like-minded nations the global scale and i think this how could be characterized as an effort to set up a tech alliance among the like-minded nations and i think this will be another initiative that we have to seek i agree i think this is a great idea what some people are calling it a d10 or a t-10 of of of democratic countries you know uh prime minister you you were you were a big promoter of of the vision of a free and open indo-pacific and and this this was aimed at at strengthening us uh you know economically and from a security perspective but really from a perspective of of principles and values as well and you know i think that the promotion of of democratic governance and basic human rights and and uh and rule of law and and freedom of speech uh these aren't just an exercise in an altruism that promotion it's also one of the best means to to counter uh the chinese communist party vision which is quite different uh and aimed at i think creating servile relationships with countries through programs like the belt and road initiative and the and the uh and the debt trap that they set for countries as you look now at this very strong legacy that you've left with the free and open indo-pacific what else do you think we have to do to realize your vision we talked about technology and and security and economic competition but how would you mind commenting a little bit on what more we can do to promote the free and open vision as an alternative to china's authoritarian mercantilist model i mean indian ocean as well as the pacific ocean in order for us to uh transform these two best oceans into an international public good which will serve for prosperity not only the region but also the entire world it will be critically important to maintain free and open order based on the rule of law and in order for us to realize such water that is free and open there has to be something that would underpin such order and that is the compliance of the international law by all nation states and my vision was to ensure all like-minded nations come together by sharing fundamental values and also sharing determination to maintain and protect ourselves free and open order that was the thinking that i had when i elaborated my vision of a free and open door back in august 2007 i had an honor to give an address to the indian parliament where i had delivered my speech titled confluence of the two diseases and i elaborated on my mission on that occasion and highlighting the new concept of this geopolitical idea of indo pacific as one word and the voip concept is something that i came to elaborate and further develop based on the thinking that i laid out in india under the vision of the free and open in the pacific i set three main pillars first was the promotion of the fundamental values including the freedom of navigation as well as the rules second how was the economic prosperity through the influence of infrastructure development as well as ensuring connectivity and inclusion and the final pillar was the collaboration how to realize peace and stability through capacity building efforts for the maritime law enforcement and other aspects and my vision was the one which drove japan to work other like-minded nations to seek concrete collaboration along with these three main pillars and president bargain now also endorses this uh thinking of point and our collaboration and as of now japan and the united states are working together as valued partners and i am very happy to see such close collaboration between the two sides our vision of a free and open indo-pacific it's an open one and also an inclusive effort under which we would welcome any nations that share the fundamental thinking and our shared vision so moving forward the key will be how we can effectively bring more nations and partners on board in this process of realizing if we are open in the pacific and also how we can continue every effort to materialize specific and concrete collaboration and cooperation you know i think this is a really important point for our viewers these aren't just words i mean i've i've seen the actions right and and that have occurred in the format of the free and open indo-pacific freedom navigation exercises through the south china sea that are now done routinely at a multinational level uh the the leadership that that uh japan has taken in establishing uh standards for infrastructure investment across the region the actions that japan has led in the world trade organization is another example i think so i just want to make sure our viewers know that there's been a tremendous amount of progress and in one of the areas that was an early part of your vision i think right after you gave that speech i think in india in 2007 you were an advocate of the quad format the quad uh sort of the anchoring uh the the free and open internal pacific from india to australia to japan to the united states and you know the first ever quad summit meeting was held earlier this year i hope that you were proud of that because i think you you really are the one who who started uh the momentum uh behind that and i'd just like to ask for your assessment of the quad and and what your vision is for the quad going forward even when i first served as a prime minister i focused on this need for us to materialize quad cooperation and behind this uh was my thinking about india india was back then also a large ancient wise compared to china and also it is a huge democracy in asia and also i could see great potential for growth of this country so that is why i have been focusing on media so back then i laid out my vision about quad to president bush of the united states prime minister howard of australia as well as prime minister mama india and they all shared my period but back then the violence of china especially in the military and security realm i was not as conspicuous as we see at this moment and three foundations did not share the imminent and urgent need for us to materialize such cooperation under the quad framework so back then we only had director gerald bubble consultation under a quad concept and we did not have any ministerial or summit level collaboration and then when i came back as prime minister again i started to work on the realization of quad among the four alike-minded nations and behind us was a greater assertiveness shown by china in its unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the year 2016 on the occasion of the tcat meeting tokyo international conference on african development i have explained how japan's free and open ignorant pacific vision unfortunately president trump back then but my argument and he endorsed this vision and same as australia and india they are very positive about this quad corporation speaking of the united states from president trump to or president biden they maintained this policy and emphasis on the foreign and also in australia starting from prime minister albert to prime minister turnbull and prime minister morris they also share the importance of this initiative so as to ensure a regional stability same as in india prime minister modi has been quite effective in following through his determination to maintain this quad corporation and then in september 2019 there was the first ever foreign minister's quad meeting on the margins of the u.n general assembly followed by the first ever summit quan summit meeting in march this year so i'm very happy to see these steady progress in our quad corporation as an outcome of the first ever quad summit meeting back in march the leaders decided to promote cooperation in new domains including supply of vaccines ensuring and protecting critical and emerging technologies as well as climate change and they decided to set up three separate working groups to promote cooperation on top of the traditional cooperation that we have in continuing in areas such as quality infrastructure as well as maritime security so moving forward i do think that the key for four of us would be to materialize practical and concrete cooperation under the quad you know one of those areas of cooperation was another area that were you i think pioneered years ago and that this was what is now being called the data free flow with trust or dfft and and uh this is one of these new arenas of competition right whoever makes the rules on on data is going to have a competitive advantage and of course china's trying to bend those rules in favor of its authoritarian model uh so i wonder would you would you mind sharing your thoughts on on that initiative in particular but then also what more can be done uh in the areas of trade agreements i know that you were in this conversation many times uh with us uh with president trump uh on the trans-pacific partnership uh i you know the difficulties in passing any multilateral trade agreement in the united states regardless of which political party is in in charge but what is your vision for the future on initiatives like the digital uh the uh the data free flow of trust uh and trade agreements uh what else do you think we have to do internationally uh to to conv to convince china that you know our system works and that china can benefit most by participating in that system rather than trying to subvert it when we talk about the military rights of china i understand the compliance of international law and respect for rules in the area of maritime security and this emphasis and focus on rules and international law can be applied to the economic role i firmly believe that gpp has played a very significant role under this framework we successfully established free and fair rules that is befitting to the 21st century in a wide range of areas including the protection of ips environment labor and also our effort to ensure a level playing field and regulates the conditions visibly the state owned enterprises also under ttp we set up a comprehensive and high level rules in the rapidly growing e-commerce realm as well and this agreement specifically had articles to ensure free flow of data and that is why the tpp was such an impact-making endeavor and on top of tpp my administration took the lead in the global efforts to set up rules that will be befitting onto the new era including my vision of data free flow with trust dfft which he rightly mentioned as well as the conclusion of the japan u.s digital trade agreement and i am proud of what we have done in this area of course the world is changing rapidly as we see rapid progressive technologies but i do think that it is japan and the united states that share the responsibility to take the lead in the rule-making process under the new era because we are the ones who share fundamental values such as freedom democracy basic human rights and the rule of law and speaking of the presence of china they successfully achieved rapid economic growth since they entered wt and china itself is fully aware of this development and in the context of the chinese dog and voting i do think that there are demands for this initiative and as a matter of fact there are a number of european countries that are working and collaborating with this chinese initiative but what is more important here is to look at the potential impact and influence how that the chinese development board initiative will eventually bring to the world and in light of the events of chinese gold and gold initiative japan has decided to ensure its willingness to cooperate with china case by cases and if there are projects that china would respect the shared principles then we will be ready and willing to cooperate with china and that's the stance that i demonstrated what i mean by these shared principles is the forefront quality infrastructure principles the first is openness the second is transparency the third is economic efficiency of life cycle cost and fourth economic soundness and debt sustainability china once was opposing this four-pronged principles of japan set forth but eventually on the occasion of the g20 osaka summit in the year 2019 where i served as a chair china also joined us on board to endorse this principle and my firm belief is that if china is to respect and implement this full prompt principle then the whole international community will accept china as a critical partner and that would eventually enable for china's further growth the key is to make sure that we as the nations and alliance will promote such fundamental values in various areas and translate our shared values into concrete rules and proactively laid out our ambition in that role if we are to set out rules based on fundamental values then no country can ignore or disregard such rules the prime minister we i can't believe we're almost running out of time but i do want to ask you about more of the world and and so i'll ask you some quick questions none of them are easy but i think you visited something like 80 80 countries in your eight years as prime minister so i want to broaden our perspective a little bit but first by asking you a question that's very close to japan which and a danger that's close to japan which is north korea you know we worked very hard to align our approach on on on north korea in 2017 and 2018 i think we began to have some positive results from the campaign of of maximum pressure but i think we've had some setbacks since that time what more do you think japan and the united states can do to to prevent north korea from being a danger to the whole world right including its nuclear and missile programs and of course uh an important point always for japan is is the is the abductions issue right the you know this this horrible crime of of of north koreans kidnapping uh young japanese people off off the shores and and many of the fates of these of these victims are still unresolved so could you share with our viewers your assessment of the danger from north korea and what more we can do about it with regard to japan's policy towards north korea we have the basic document released by prime minister koizuni and chairman khan kim jong-il called japan dprk going on declaration and japan's basic policy orientation is to comprehensively resolve the outstanding issues of concern including including the abductions missile and nuclear issues and settle the unfortunate tasks and aiming for the normalization of the diplomatic relationship between the two sides and this policy remains the same under the current administration you touched on the abduction issue as you rightly mentioned north korea kidnapped a large number of japanese citizens including then 13 year old girl and they were still high in north korea are not being able to come back to japan so this is uh such an intolerable act and i will never condone what they have done to the japanese citizens but on the specific issue president trump conveyed my view as well as japan's position directly to chairman kim jong-un and i do appreciate what president trump had done on this front and we will continue our sincere efforts to resolve this abductions issue through the close collaboration between japan and the united states as well as in close quarter collaboration with the entire international community and all the nuclear and missile issues we have to ensure close cooperation bilaterally and also trilaterally with the republic of korea to ensure full implementation of development unto the council resolutions aiming for north korea's cbid complete verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of all weapons of mass destruction and to do so we have to have a united front in the international community and we have to maintain the maximum pressure against north korea moving forward and there's no doubt that the sanctions are working effectively on north korea uh in the area of ship-to-ship transfers japan took the lead to materialize global collaboration to address this issue including our collaboration with the united states and the key part is to maintain the united front of the international community and by doing that we will be able to exercise maximum pressure on north korea so as to encourage north korea's major policy change in the future know i agree with you i i know we've made some progress at times on the maximum pressure to test this thesis that we could convince kim jong-un he's safer without the weapons than he is with them but there is so much more to be done and i hope that i hope we stick with that policy and i'm glad that it seems like the relationship between japan and south korea is getting stronger i think that helps as well so there have been some positive developments i uh that i hope the body administration can can can pers can continue i hope that they don't go back to the failed pattern of previous efforts however uh i'd like to ask you one last geopolitical question and it's kind of an unfair one because it's very general but you visited the middle east many times as prime minister i i would say you're an expert about the problems of the middle east those involving iran and its its continued uh proxy wars in the region how that's feeding this devastating cycle of sectarian violence i would just like to ask you generally how do you see the current situation in the middle east uh what is your prediction about the trajectory of the middle east and what can japan the u.s and others do uh to try to at least keep the situation across the region from getting worse of course japan is far from the middle east geographically but the fact is that we depend on the middle east for almost 90 percent of the crude oil and that is why stability and peace on the ground in the middle east has critical duplication of japan's own national interest maybe it may be fair to say that psychologically all japanese understand that the middle east region is important but the awareness is was not just there but because of my firm belief and conviction that this region is critically important for japan i decided to travel to the region many times as the prime minister and speaking of japan's involvement and engagement with the middle east region we do have a unique position and standing for example between japan and israel we do have a historically deep ties and i've been to israel are two times netanyahu came to japan two times but also on top of that we do have deep relations with palestine and other nations and on top of that we do have a traditional ties with ivan we do have this leverage of the traditional ties with iran and after a series of thorough consultations with president trump i decided to visit yvonne in the month of june of 2019 where i had meetings with stream leader harmony as well as president rouhani during these meetings i conveyed president trump's messages and views to the iranian leadership and afterwards i also conveyed iranian views to president trump after i returned to japan and also with regard to the middle east peace process for example japan has been promoting this unique initiative of corridor for peace and prosperity this is the initiative aimed at ensuring economic independence and palestine through the four-party cooperation among japan palestine israel and jordan more specifically this is an initiative to realize the social economic development in palestine especially in the jordan valley area through creating jobs and and also ensuring the consumption and economic activities along the ground so he won't be the mutual confidence among the four parties of uh japan palestine israel and jordan and we have to maintain perseverance and consistency to seek such joint endeavor it was recently there were political developments both in iran and israel and hardliners won respective elections there and because of this some are having this quite pessimistic views about the outlook and prospect of the regional developments but having said that it is also true that new leaders can aspire for a change and they might be able to bring something from you to the table and it has been the case that if there is a hardliner leader of a nation he or she may start pursuing any of the historic achievements both in the political sense or even the diplomatic process so i do have some hope for such a turnover and they might be able to bring something concrete moving forward so if the international community observes such willingness coming out of these newly elected leaders of iran and israel we have to lend more support and encourage further positive developments on the ground obviously i think you're more i think you're more optimistic than i am on this and that i would say as i would say that while there is a new leader in israel the leader in iran is the same and i think that's where the problem is but but i think you're absolutely right engagement is the only alternative right i mean what else can you do because i i think in the middle east just when you think it can't get worse it actually can get worse and of course as you know problems that originate in the middle east don't stay there right so i i think i i admire your tenacity and your diplomacy and and i think there is no other alternative you know you've been so generous with your time i do have one important final question though you know i wish that you had been able to transition out of the prime ministership in a better year it was a bad year for everybody across the world right with a with a pandemic and a recession associated with the pandemic but i think the strength of your leadership is is and and uh and prime minister suga's leadership is going to carry japan through certainly and your and japan will emerge stronger from this horrible year and i wanted to ask you about some of the signs of that strength the strength of japan right before the pandemic broke out i was in japan uh you might i think you know i'm a fan of rugby i used to play rugby and i was there for rugby world cup and i saw this amazing japanese team advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time in history it was the best ball handling and running rugby i've i've ever seen and then of course lots of good news you know since then from in the area in in the realm of sport despite the pandemic your friend and someone with whom i know you've golfed frequently uh hideki uh matsuyama won the masters and became the first ever japanese professional golfer to win immense major golf championship and i'm with family now in southern california where everybody is talking about another japanese phenomenal athlete uh and i'm talking about shohei ohtani the great pitcher for the anaheim angels who in in like babe ruth you know is a is a one is a great pitcher who hits home runs all the time he hit six home runs in six games in a row uh for example so now the summer olympics are coming up they're going to begin in tokyo on july 23rd and i'd just like to ask you what can you tell our viewers about your predictions for the olympics how you think it's going to go and then anything you'd like to share about japanese sports uh and uh and uh what what americans should know about japanese athletes the first time that i played both with president trump was with mr ernie else and i still vividly remember that he said to me that if there is ever a japanese golf player who would win the masters that would be definitely and i still remember his prediction and afterwards i also had a pleasure playing both together with president trump country club that will be the venue for you one big golf event anoka remember the time that i spent with these two playing golf and right after the historic victory of mr matsuyama president trump and also mr matsuyama got in touch with me to celebrate the time that we spent together and i sincerely hope that mr matsuyama will have a great success uh at the upcoming tokyo olympics uh earning the gold medal i hope so it is true that we are still uh in the era of the covet 19 but moving forward we will continue work with the entire international community and we are absolutely determined to realize a very successful tokyo games this year in tokyo and by doing that we hope how to bring inspiration to all people on the globe and one potential highlight of the olympics will be 100 by four times male relay and i do hope that the americans and the japanese teams will compete with each other uh for that event to seek the gold medal great well i'm sure it will be a successful olympics and the world's ready for it and i'm glad that japan will provide us with that with that boost prime minister abe i i can't thank you enough on behalf of the hoover institution the hudson institute thank you for helping us learn more about battlegrounds important to building a future of peace and prosperity for generations to come and thank you especially for your leadership and vision over the years it was wonderful to be with you thank you very much i hope i will see you later thank you battlegrounds is a production of the hoover institution where we advance ideas that define a free society for more information about our work to hear more of our podcasts or view our video content please visit hoover.org you

Channel: Hoover Institution

Views: 42,649

Rating: 4.7297297 out of 5

Keywords: Battlegrounds, H.R. McMaster, Strategic empathy, national security, foreign affairs, Hoover Institution, Hoover Institute, Diplomacy, Shinzo Abe, Japan, Prime minister, Japanese, Japanese Diet, Indo-pacific, foreign policy

Id: WDwzTlV9PIY

Length: 58min 57sec (3537 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 21 2021