Sales have exceeded the expectations of publisher Chuokoron-Shinsha. In the first two days after “Abe Shinzo Kaikoroku” was released on Wednesday, the company twice ordered additional printings.

A representative at the publishing house told Nikkei Asia there were fears in the company that perhaps too many books on Abe had already been published. “But by around 9am on day one, it was already sold out on Amazon,” she said.

The book is a compilation of 18 interviews conducted by longtime Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reporters Goro Hashimoto and Hiroshi Oyama. Abe spoke for a total of 36 hours.

“We started with 30,000 copies but immediately ordered a second impression of 30,000 that day. The next day, we ordered another 40,000 copies, bringing the total to 100,000 copies,” more than triple the original plan, the Chuokoron representative said.

One of the book’s highlights is Abe’s observation of Trump, whom he saw as unconventional, though not necessarily negatively. In May 2019, Abe rode in Beast, Trump’s bulletproof car, on the streets of Tokyo. The two had watched sumo at the National Sumo Arena and took the same car to dinner to save time.

Noticing that many people were waving at the car from the roadside, Trump asked his host, “Shinzo, are they waving at you or at me?” Told by Abe that they were of course waving to Trump, the American leader turned on the interior lights so that the crowd could see him waving back. Horrified, a Secret Service member sitting in the front asked for the light to immediately be turned off, to avoid giving away which of the two Beasts was the dummy and which carried the actual president.

“Don’t worry Shinzo. This car won’t let through a bullet even if it were shot 200 times in the same spot,” Trump assured Abe.

To this, first lady Melania Trump responded with a joke. “Well what happens when the 201st bullet comes?” she quipped, to which they all had a big laugh.

Abe revealed that his phone calls with Trump would sometimes last as long as 90 minutes. “The main topic would last about 15 minutes. After that, 70% or 80% of the conversation would be about golf or criticism of other world leaders,” Abe said. But he said their chemistry was good.

Abe said he struggled to form a personal relationship with Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama, who did not engage in small talk. Even when Abe in April 2014 took Obama to Sukiyabashi Jiro, the world-renowned sushi restaurant in Ginza, the American leader dove right into business as they sat down at the counter. “Shinzo, your cabinet has an approval rating of 60%. Mine is 45%. Your political base is stronger so can’t you compromise?” Obama asked over a discussion over the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which the US was still part of, Abe said.

On diplomacy with China, Abe said it was always a chess match. “In the seven years and nine months of my second administration, I went on 81 foreign trips,” he said. “In every meeting with foreign leaders, I brought up China and spoke of the need to watch its military buildup or aggressive maritime expansion. Some leaders would agree with me and some would not. If the country was close to China, they might very well tattletale to Beijing. But this was entirely expected.”

In fact, Abe said he believed this might have been to Japan’s advantage. “This is just a hunch,” he said, “but I believe that China respects people who are willing to fight. ‘Japan’s not bad,’ they conclude, and strategize accordingly.”

Abe added, “In order to make China alter its aggressive behaviour, I needed to continue to win elections and to make them think that this cumbersome Abe administration is here to stay.”

On India, Abe said that Japan has a special place in Indian people’s hearts and revealed an anecdote from 1957, when his grandfather, former prime minister Nobusuke Kishi, visited Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. “I heard later from the interpreter who accompanied my grandfather that people had gathered outside the prime minister’s office. Nehru told Kishi: “I am going to give a speech to the people outside, so I will take this opportunity to introduce you.”

Outside, Nehru told the crowd: “Kishi here is the prime minister of the country that won a war against the Russian Empire. Japan gave us the courage to fight the British to gain independence.” The crowd erupted into cheers.

Abe said that during his first stint as leader, from September 2006 to September 2007, he pitched to former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh to form a new grouping of the US, Japan, India and Australia — today’s Quad — but that the Indian leader was hesitant. Singh was reluctant to damage relations with China.

Singh’s successor, Narendra Modi, was more understanding, Abe said.

“Modi’s stance was that India would not join the Quad if it was just the US and Australia,” Abe said. “But if Japan was going to take the lead, he was going to say yes.”

In the book, Abe shared an anecdote about a train ride with former British prime minister Theresa May, which may have been a major turning point in the bilateral relationship. In August 2017, May and Abe travelled on a shinkansen to Tokyo, after dining the previous day in the ancient capital of Kyoto.

“Why don’t we make this an alliance?” May repeatedly suggested to Abe, according to the former Japanese prime minister. Several months earlier, the UK and Japan had signed a logistics pact called the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement to make it easier for their respective armed forces to work together on a range of activities, including United Nations peacekeeping operations and joint humanitarian aid missions.

“I was surprised,” Abe recalled. “It was an encouraging offer, but it was difficult for Japan to sign a security alliance like the one we have with the US. Japan cannot just exercise collective self-defence and defend the UK

“But these discussions led to views that Japan and the UK are quasi-allies.”

The representative at Chuokoron-Shinsha said the publisher is eager for the memoir to be read around the world and is seeking international partners to release the book in other languages.