Word: koizumi
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...from a refuge, the shrine has become one of the most controversial locales in Asia - and in the process rekindled historic antagonisms between Japan and its neighbors throughout the region. The chief agitator is none other than Japan's Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, who has made an annual pilgrimmage to the site for the past five years. Koizumi defends the visits as a chance to pray and show respect for Japan's war dead. But Koizumi's appearances at the shrine have infuriated the Chinese and South Koreans, who view it as a symbol of Japan's militarist past...
...also may be a problem for the U.S. diplomatic efforts to enlist its Asian allies to help curtail North Korea's nuclear ambitions. Under Koizumi - who travels this week to the U.S., making stops both in Washington and at Graceland - Japan has taken a more muscular role in world affairs and sent troops to Iraq. The changes have been warmly welcomed in Washington, which has long wanted Japan to shoulder more responsibility for its own defense and become a more substantial counterweight to the regional ambitions of China and North Korea. The U.S. has been alone among the other nations...
...Asia, however, Japan's assertiveness has raised anxieties about a resurgence of the nationalist impulses that led to the deaths of millions during World War II. Anger at Koizumi's visits to the shrine runs deep. At an APEC meeting in Busan, South Korea, last November, South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun told Koizumi that his visits were "totally unacceptable" and China?s ambassador to Japan recently said that a China-Japan summit, which has not happened since 2001, would only take place once "political obstacles" had been overcome. In Japan, debate over who should succeed Koizumi has thus...
...Many Japanese say such historical distortions at Yasukuni museum are disseminated by an ultra-conservative minority affiliated with the shrine, and that mainstream Japan has confronted its war past head on. Koizumi's Yasukuni visits are highly controversial in Japan itself, with public opinion split roughly in half. Yasuo Fukuda, a candidate to succeed Koizumi, has picked up support by publicly criticizing Koizumi's Yasukuni fetish. One of Japan's most influential business associations has called for the erection of a new, non-denominational memorial where the next prime minister can pay his respects instead. That may be the only...
...Japan, Roh's diatribe initially inspired shock, followed by rationalizations and finally indifference. The Asahi Shimbun newspaper called the speech a "dangerous development," but Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi downplayed it, saying his government would respond "in a cool-headed manner." Unimpressed, last Friday Korea's Foreign Ministry rebuffed Koizumi's suggestion that he and Roh hold a summit meeting to help heal the rift. Japanese papers like the Nishi Nihon Shimbun have attributed Roh's pugnacity to his domestic political concerns, suggesting that Japan need not take his speech too seriously: "An uncompromising stance against Japan plays well into...