the power of the Lady

April 29, 2007 Mrs Abe brings a breath of fresh air to Japan

By JAPAN CORRESPONDENT, Kwan Weng Kin
TOKYO - AS THE wife of a Japanese statesman, Mrs Akie Abe is surely atypical.
She walks down aircraft ramps holding the hand of her husband, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, rather than keeping two steps behind him.
And she has her own blog.
But in an interview aired yesterday, the 44-year-old told CNN TalkAsia she did not see herself as a role model for young Japanese women.
Many Japanese women are caught between having a career and having children, and many decide that children can wait, contributing to Japan's declining birthrate.
The Abes have no children.
Mrs Abe told CNN: 'I think we need to create more work that will enable women to juggle both work and child-bearing. Also we need to improve childcare facilities like nursery schools and so on.'
The interview, which also featured her 52-year-old husband, was recorded a few days before their first official visit to the United States from April 26 to 27.
As Japan's first consort to the prime minister in five years, since Mr Abe's predecessor Junichiro Koizumi was divorced and did not remarry, she was like a breath of fresh air to the nation.
That, plus the fact that she is - in her own words - 'relatively young'.
Born into a wealthy family connected with one of Japan's largest confectionery companies, Mrs Abe is as much a starry-eyed fan of pop stars as many of her countrywomen.
Asked by CNN about her fascination with Korean pop culture, especially TV dramas and movies, she said: 'I think Korean dramas and movies are straightforward, which are reminiscent of Japanese dramas and movies some time ago.
'And I sense, this is perhaps my own feeling, that Korean male stars seem to be more manly than Japanese men.'
Walking down the steps of planes holding her husband's hand was apparently her idea.
'At the inauguration of president Clinton, I saw him holding hands with Mrs Clinton and I thought it was pretty cool. Which is why I walked down the aircraft holding my husband's hand,' she told CNN.
On her blog, Akie Abe's Smile Talk, she recounts her visits to welfare homes and other institutions, as well as her travels abroad with her husband.
The blog was started in November last year in an apparent attempt to help boost her husband's popularity, which fell from the 70 per cent soon after he assumed office in late September to 40 per cent earlier this year.
It stands now at 50 per cent, after a successful visit here by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao earlier this month.
Mrs Abe told CNN that the toughest thing about watching her husband at work was the continuous bashing he received in the Japanese media.
'It is certainly hard for me to see him being criticised in weekly magazines or on TV. But he does not really bring those things into our home. In our home, he really behaves as if there is no stress,' she said.