For many years, the postwar slogan “Learn from Germany” was misused in Japan as a tool of masochistic historical thinking and anti-Japanese ideology.
Yet what Japan should truly learn is the reality that Germany’s international presence was sustained by long-term political stability under Adenauer for 16 years and Merkel for more than 16 years.
This essay argues from that perspective that a fourth term for Prime Minister Abe would be a natural choice in the national interest, while also reflecting on the significance of the new era name, Reiwa.

2019-04-01
The reason Germany came to possess such a large presence was precisely that it had 16 years of Adenauer and more than 16 years of Merkel, a total of over 32 years of CDU rule…。
That, and that alone, is what Japan should learn from Germany.

As someone who does not live in Kyoto, it is nevertheless well known to those around me and to my readers that over the past more than ten years, I have visited Kyoto so often that calling me one of the foremost visitors in the world would not be an exaggeration at all.
By chance, I was watching the announcement of the new era name in real time.

The so-called scholars and so-called intellectuals, who in reality were no more than people afflicted with leftist infantilism, kept saying, “Learn from Germany,” and readers of Asahi, TBS, and NHK, all of which have long given weight to Kang Sang-jung, ought to know this well.
Readers of the Yomiuri Shimbun, which has long valued Masakazu Yamazaki, should also know well that it placed his essay calling on Japan to “learn from Germany” on its front page.

But the “learn from Germany” that they kept preaching…。
Was something that agents of the Korean Peninsula and China, who continue to carry out what can only be called Nazism under the name of anti-Japan education, kept insisting upon in order to demean Japan…。
Out of a masochistic view of history and the anti-Japanese ideology that grows out of it…。
A thoroughly foolish and malignant fusion of GHQ indoctrination, communism, and pseudo-moralism…。
Since August five years ago, when the rule of Japan by that outrageous newspaper company, Asahi Shimbun, finally came to an end…。
And together with the advance of the internet, the greatest library in human history…。
Many Japanese, myself included, came to know this.
This column was the first in the world to point it out.

What Japan should learn from Germany is not the lies and nonsense that those afflicted with leftist infantilism kept repeating.
Adenauer, whom Asahi Shimbun kept upholding as a great statesman, ruled for 16 years, and Merkel for more than 16 years, with CDU leaders serving continuously as chancellor…。
That is why Germany, despite having been a Nazi state, became not only the leading power of the EU…。
But also maintained its great presence as the longest-serving elder statesman in the Western world, until it suddenly weakened its domestic and international presence as a result of responding in a manner that was the very height of pseudo-moralism to the massive influx of refugees from Africa, and whether or not there were schemes by China and others seeking to divide the EU through this is surely an urgent issue that journalists and scholars of international politics ought to investigate…。
In any event, the reason Germany possessed such a great presence was precisely that it had 16 years of Adenauer and more than 16 years of Merkel, a total of over 32 years of CDU rule…。
That, and that alone, is what it means to say, “Learn from Germany.”
It has absolutely nothing to do with the deliberate misuse…。
Of the Weizsäcker speech, that bundle of lies…。
This column was the first in the world to declare that.

A fourth term for Prime Minister Abe is only natural…。
Far more important than the internal rules of the Liberal Democratic Party…。
And all the more so when one considers the situations involving China and the Korean Peninsula…。
It goes without saying that the national interest must take priority.

All Japanese people who watched today’s announcement of the new era name…。
Except for those afflicted with leftist infantilism, represented by Asahi Shimbun, Kenzaburō Ōe, and Haruki Murakami, who have kept prattling that Japan is not beautiful…。
Must surely have thought the same thing.
Prime Minister Abe is magnificent.
They must have realized that he is the finest talent among all the postwar prime ministers.
Even those information-weak people who have subscribed to Asahi Shimbun and watched only the reporting of its affiliated broadcasters and NHK’s news programs…。
Must for the first time today have understood that it is no exaggeration to call Shinzo Abe the greatest talent of the postwar era.
For the first time, Japan cast off the foolish overemphasis on Chinese classics…。
And selected the era name from the Manyōshū.
And it chose a name than which nothing could be more splendid.