A long time ago, an elderly female professor of the Royal Ballet School of Monaco, who prima ballerinas around the world highly respect, visited Japan.
She spoke at that time about the significance of an artist's existence.
She said, "Artists are important because they are the only ones who can shed light on hidden, concealed truths and express them."
No one would dispute her words.
It is no exaggeration to say that Masayuki Takayama is not only the one and only journalist in the postwar world, but also the one and only artist in the postwar world.
On the other hand, many of those who call themselves artists, such as Oe, Murakami, and Hirano, do not even deserve the artist's name.
They have only expressed the lies created by the Asahi Shimbun and others rather than shedding light on hidden truths and telling them.
Their existence is not limited to Japan, but is the same in other countries around the world.
In other words, only a minimal number of actual artists exist.
This book is also painful proof that I am right when I say that there is no one in the world today who deserves the Nobel Prize in Literature more than Masayuki Takayama.
Taiwan Contingency Leads to Japan Contingency
Sekihei
Mr. Abe made Japan and neighboring countries aware of the importance of Taiwan in the words that will remain in posterity: "A Taiwan contingency will lead to a Japan contingency.
The loss of Mr. Abe is critical, but the legacy he bequeathed will not be lost, and the siege net for China is already the consensus in the western free world.
Instead, by his death, Abe will become a symbol of the free world's will to unite in the future.
Even if Abe dies, the siege net for China will not die.
Takayama.
He even made the U.S. change its "ambiguous strategy."
Sekihei
The U.S.'s ambiguous strategy toward Taiwan was a deterrent against China, but it no longer works.
It is crucial to clarify that the Japan-U.S. alliance will not allow this.
It will serve as a deterrent against Xi Jinping's ambitions toward Taiwan.
Takayama
When Biden was asked, "Are you determined to take military action for Taiwan?" he answered, "yes."
That may have been a sign of agreement between the U.S. and Japan.
Sekihei
Yes, yes.
Of course, there may be a change of government in the U.S. or other liberal countries in the future, but this trend created by Mr. Abe should not change drastically.
Takayama.
But how will China come out after Mr. Abe is gone?
Sekihei
Initially, China looked down on Mr. Abe and thought he was not much of a figurehead.
When Xi Jinping met Mr. Abe for the first time in 2014, he kept a grumpy face and did not show a single smile.
But eventually, he could no longer ignore Abe, and at the winter meeting in 2019, Xi Jinping was in a position to be lectured by Abe.
He brought up Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Uyghur issues to check China's suppression of human rights.
There is a strong feeling that Shinzo Abe has beaten Xi Jinping for the past ten years.
So, of course, China must welcome the death of Abe, their irreconcilable enemy.
Even so, Xi Jinping should not be able to stroke his chest.
The spirit of Abe's diplomatic strategy will live on, as evidenced by such high evaluations by major world powers.
Xi Jinping and his team must be astonished by that.
It is hard to believe that the world would show such condolences even after his death.
Takayama
If that is the case, will there be a slight discrepancy in the future strategy toward China?
Sekihei
Mr. Abe's death is a tragedy, and I would have hoped he would have continued to work hard as a guiding light for the next ten or twenty years.
But Mr. Abe has successfully fulfilled his historical mission as Shinzo Abe.
Takayama.
But is there any leader in Japan today who can replace Mr. Abe and go toe-to-toe with such rascals as Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping?
Sekihei
I don't see anyone, but I am sure someone will emerge.
History is a matter of creating the right person at the right time.
And the right person creates the right era.
No one would have imagined that Zelensky would have fought so hard during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
He was seen as a mere comic actor.
Now he is a hero.
Such a person should emerge from Japan as well.
There is one more thing for which I am grateful to Mr. Abe.
The fact that many countries around the world expressed their deepest condolences for Mr. Abe's death after he passed proves Japan's growing importance and reputation as a country.
That is also Mr. Abe's achievement.
Postwar Japan was nothing more than an entity that was simply at the mercy of the U.S.
But Mr. Abe has moved the U.S. under the Trump administration, and Japan has become an essential player in international politics.
The strategic concept that the Japanese prime minister brought up became a global trend.
The world moves with the flow created by the Japanese prime minister.
