Editing Nobusuke Kishi (section)

==Later years==
After taking power in a [[May 16 coup|coup d'état in May 1961]], the South Korean dictator General [[Park Chung Hee]] visited Japan in November 1961 to discuss establishing diplomatic relations between Japan and South Korea, which were finally achieved in 1965.<ref name="Eckert, Carter page 310">Eckert, Carter ''Park Chung Hee and Modern Korea: The Roots of Militarism, 1866–1945'', Cambridge: Belknap Press, 2016 page 310.</ref> Park had been a Japanese military officer serving in the Manchukuo Army and had fought with the Kwantung Army against guerrillas in Manchuria.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}} During his visit to Japan, Park met with Kishi, and speaking in his fluent, albeit heavily Korean-accented Japanese, praised Japan for the "efficiency of the Japanese spirit", and said that he wanted to learn "good plans" from Japan for South Korea.<ref name="Eckert, Carter page 310"/> Besides  fond reminiscences about the Japanese officers in Manchukuo who taught him about how to give a "good thrashing" to one's opponents, Park was very interested in Kishi's economic policies in Manchuria as a model for South Korea.<ref name="Eckert, Carter page 310"/> Kishi told the Japanese press after his meeting with Park that he was a "little embarrassed" by Park's rhetoric, which was virtually unchanged from the sort of talk used by Japanese officers in World War II, with none of the concessions to the world of 1961 that Kishi himself employed.<ref name="Eckert, Carter page 310"/> During his time as president of South Korea, Park launched the [[Five-Year Plans of South Korea|Five-Year Plans]] for the economic development of South Korea featuring statist economic policies that very closely resembled Five-Year Plan Kishi had administered in Manchukuo.<ref name="Eckert, Carter page 310"/>

For the rest of his life, Kishi remained devoted to the cause of revising the Japanese Constitution to get rid of [[Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution|Article 9]] and remilitarizing Japan. In 1965, Kishi gave a speech where he called for Japanese rearmament as "a means of eradicating completely the consequences of Japan's defeat and the American occupation. It is necessary to enable Japan finally to move out of the post-war era and for the Japanese people to regain their self-confidence and pride as Japanese."<ref name="economist.com"/> In his final years, Kishi grew increasingly bitter that constitutional revision had not yet come to pass.{{sfn|Kitaoka|2016|p=117}} In his memoirs, he somewhat angrily recalled, "the idea of constitutional revision had always remained at the forefront of [my] mind... The two main culprits in destroying the momentum toward constitutional revision were [[Hayato Ikeda]] and my brother, [[Eisaku Satō]], who, while they held power, made sure the constitution would remain unchanged. That is why the call for constitutional revision died with my administration."{{sfn|Kapur|2018|p=81}}

Kishi remained in the Diet until retiring from politics in 1979. Even after he retired, he remained a strong influence behind the scenes in LDP politics.{{sfn|Haberman|1987}} After several months of illness, Kishi died on August 7, 1987, at the age of 90.{{sfn|Haberman|1987}}