Word: abely
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...melted considerably, but the water remains cold.' WANG YI, China's ambassador to Japan, on relations between the two countries following talks between Premier Wen Jiabao and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo April 11 and 12. Wen's trip marked the first diplomatic visit to Japan by a Chinese leader in nearly seven years
...door for the normalization of Japanese forces, allowing greater participation in international peacekeeping operations, closer cooperation with the U.S., and perhaps the acquisition of offensive weapons such as cruise missiles. It would also fulfill a goal the LDP has held since it was established in 1955. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made constitutional amendment the cornerstone of his young administration, declaring that Japan must "slough off the postwar regime." That kind of talk sets off alarm bells for critics who view any easing of military limits as the beginning of a backslide into wartime aggression. (Former Singaporean leader Lee Kuan...
...Under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has called upon Japan to revise its pacifist constitution, the country has taken a turn to the right, and political intimidation by fringe rightist groups isn't unknown. In August the house of senior legislator Koichi Kato was burned to the ground in an arson attack, in what was taken as a warning against Kato's outspoken liberal views. It remains to be seen whether Itoh's shooting was another political warning, or just a personal grudge...
...Mutual interest may not be enough. Though China has downplayed Abe's recent attempts to rewrite Japan's wartime history, Yasukuni remains a redline for Beijing. Eventually Abe will come under pressure from his conservative base to stand up to China, as Koizumi did, and visit Yasukuni. At the same time the Chinese government could face anger at home should it be seen as playing too nice with Tokyo. The past is never really past in Asia, but Japan and China have enough genuine challenges in front of them without being weighed down by what's behind...
...course, Wen would never go to Yasukuni, because China sees the shrine as a symbol of unrepentant Japanese imperialism. Beijing has made Yasukuni a litmus test - it was only when new Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe became purposefully vague on visiting the shrine that icy Sino-Japanese relations began to thaw. Yushukan perpetuates the lie that the war was unavoidable, and that the 5,843 mostly young men who lost their lives as kamikazes died for a transcendent cause, died to save Japan. The museum is a celebration of wasted lives...