{"id":11152,"date":"2013-02-08T09:28:39","date_gmt":"2013-02-08T19:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11152"},"modified":"2014-10-04T12:32:47","modified_gmt":"2014-10-04T22:32:47","slug":"japan-times-just-be-cause-column-60-feb-4-2013-keep-abes-hawks-in-check-or-japan-and-asia-will-suffer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11152","title":{"rendered":"Japan Times JUST BE CAUSE Column 60, Feb 4, 2013: “Keep Abe\u2019s hawks in check or Japan and Asia will suffer”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Keep Abe\u2019s hawks in check or Japan and Asia will suffer<\/strong>
\n By ARUDOU, Debito<\/strong>
\n The Japan Times, February 4, 2013<\/strong>
\n Column 60 for the Japan Times Community Page<\/strong>
\nCourtesy http:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/community\/2013\/02\/04\/issues\/keep-abes-hawks-in-check-or-japan-and-asia-will-suffer<\/a>, version with links to sources below<\/p>\n

On Jan. 1, The Japan Times\u2019 lead story was \u201cSummer poll to keep Abe in check<\/a>.\u201d It made the argument that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe\u2019s Liberal Democratic Party alliance falls short of a majority in the Upper House, so until elections happen this summer he lacks a \u201cfull-fledged administration\u201d to carry out a conservative agenda.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I believe this is over-optimistic. The LDP alliance already has 325 seats in Japan\u2019s overwhelmingly powerful Lower House \u2014 safely more than the 320 necessary to override Upper House vetoes. Moreover, as Japan\u2019s left was decimated in December\u2019s elections, about three-quarters of the Lower House is in the hands of avowed hard-right conservatives. Thus Abe already has his mandate.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

So this column will focus on what Abe, only the second person in postwar Japanese history given another chance at PM, is up to this time.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Recall how Abe fluffed his first chance between 2006-7 \u2014 so badly that he made it onto a list of \u201cJapan\u2019s top 10 most useless PMs<\/a>\u201d (Light Gist, Sept. 27, 2011) on these pages. The Cabinet he selected was a circus of embarrassments (e.g., after his corrupt agriculture minister claimed \u00a55 million for \u201coffice utility expenses,\u201d the replacement then claimed expenses for no office at all, and the next replacement only lasted a week), with gaffe after gaffe from an elitist old-boy club whittling away Abe\u2019s approval ratings.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Abe himself was famously incapacitated with diarrhea (spending hours a day on the john) as well as logorrhea, where his denials of wartime sexual slavery<\/a> (i.e., the \u201ccomfort women\u201d) were denounced even by Japan\u2019s closest geopolitical allies. Finally, after the LDP was trounced in a 2007 Upper House election, Abe suddenly resigned one week after reshuffling his Cabinet<\/a>, beginning a pattern of a one-year tenure for all subsequent Japanese PMs.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

However, Abe did accomplish one important conservative reform in 2006: amending the Fundamental Law of Education. The law now clearly states that a right to education in Japan is restricted to \u201cus Japanese citizens\u201d (ware ware Nihon kokumin \u2014 i.e., excluding foreigners), while references to educational goals developing individuality have been removed in favor of education that transmits \u201ctradition,\u201d \u201cculture\u201d and \u201clove of nation<\/a>.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In other words, building on Japan\u2019s enforced patriotism launched by former PM Keizo Obuchi from 1999 (e.g., schoolteachers and students are now technically required to demonstrate public respect to Japan\u2019s flag and national anthem or face official discipline<\/a>), vague mystical elements of \u201cJapaneseness\u201d are now formally enshrined in law to influence future generations<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s one success story from Abe\u2019s rightist to-do list. He has also called for the \u201creconsideration\u201d of the 1993 and 1995 official apologies for wartime sexual slavery (even pressuring NHK to censor its historical reportage on it in 2001), consistently denied the Nanjing Massacre, advocated children\u2019s textbooks instill \u201clove\u201d of \u201ca beautiful country\u201d by omitting uglier parts of the past, and declared his political mission as \u201crecovering Japan\u2019s independence\u201d (dokuritsu no kaifuku) in the postwar order<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Although LDP leaders were once reticent about public displays of affection towards Japan\u2019s hard right, Abe has been more unabashed. Within the past six months he has made two visits to controversial Yasukuni Shrine (once just before becoming LDP head, and once, officially, afterwards). Scholar Gavan McCormack unreservedly calls Abe \u201cthe most radical of all Japanese post-1945 leaders<\/a>.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Now Abe and his minions are back in power with possibly the most right-wing Cabinet in history. Academic journal Japan Focus last week published a translation of an NGO report (japanfocus.org\/events\/view\/170<\/a>) outlining the ultraconservative interest groups that Abe\u2019s 19 Cabinet members participate in. Three-quarters are members of groups favoring the political re-enfranchisement of \u201cShinto values\u201d and Yasukuni visits, two-thirds are in groups for remilitarizing Japan and denying wartime atrocities, and half are in groups seeking sanitation of school textbooks, adoption of a new \u201cunimposed\u201d Constitution, and protection of Japan from modernizing reforms (such as separate surnames for married couples) and outside influences (such as local suffrage for foreign permanent residents).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Abe alone is a prominent leader (if not a charter member) of almost all the ultra-rightist groups mentioned. Whenever I read rightwing propaganda, Abe\u2019s face or name invariably pops up as a spokesman or symbol. He\u2019s a big carp in a small swamp, and in a liberal political environment would have been consigned to a radical backwater of fringe ideologues.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But these are dire times for Japan, what with decades of stagnation, insuperable natural and man-made disasters, and the shame of no longer being Asia\u2019s largest economy. The glory of Japan\u2019s regional peerlessness is gone.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I have little doubt that the LDP saw this perfect storm of 3\/11 disasters (which, given how corrupt the unelected bureaucracy has been after Fukushima<\/a>, would have led to the trouncing of any party in power) as perfect timing to reinstall someone like Abe. Why else, except for Abe\u2019s thoroughbred political pedigree (grandson of a suspected Class-A war criminal turned postwar PM, and son of another big LDP leader whose name is on international fellowships) and sustained leadership of back-room interest groups, would they choose for a second time this jittery little man with a weak stomach?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Why? Because LDP kingpins knew that people were so desperate for change last year they would have elected a lampshade. After all, given the nature of parliamentary systems, people vote more for (or, in this case, against) a party, less for an individual party leader. Moreover, Abe, at first glance, does not seem as extreme as the \u201crestorationists\u201d (Shintaro Ishihara et al) who wish to take Japan back to prewar glories by banging war drums over territorial sea specks. So, the lesser of two evils.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But look at the record more closely and these \u201cliberal democrats\u201d and restorationists are actually birds of a feather. Now more powerful than ever, they\u2019re getting to work on dismantling postwar Japan. Abe announced on Jan. 31 that he will seek to amend Article 96 of the Constitution<\/a>, which currently requires a two-thirds Diet majority to approve constitutional changes. That\u2019s entirely possible. Then the rest of Japan\u2019s \u201cPeace Constitution\u201d will follow.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

So I end this month\u2019s column with a caution to outside observers:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The current Abe administration is in pole position to drive Japan back to a xenophobic, ultra-rightist, militaristic Japan that we thought the world had seen the last of after two world wars. Abe can (and will, if left to his own devices) undo all the liberal reforms that postwar social engineers thought would forever overwrite the imperialist elements of Japanese society. In fact, it is now clear that Japan\u2019s conservative elite were just biding their time all along, waiting for their rehabilitation. It has come.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the basic lessons of chess is that if you allow your opponent to accomplish his plans, you will lose. If Abe is not kept in check, Asia will lose: Japan will cease to be a liberal presence in the region. In fact, given its wealth and power in terms of money and technology, Japan could become a surprisingly destabilizing geopolitical force. Vigilance, everyone.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

===============================<\/p>\n

Debito Arudou and Akira Higuchi\u2019s bilingual 2nd Edition of \u201cHandbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants,\u201d with updates for 2012\u2032s changes to immigration laws, is now on sale. Twitter @arudoudebito. Just Be Cause appears on the first Community Page of the month. Send your comments to community@japantimes.co.jp .<\/em><\/p>\n

ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Japan Times JBC: On Jan. 1, The Japan Times\u2019 lead story was \u201cSummer poll to keep Abe in check.\u201d It made the argument that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe\u2019s Liberal Democratic Party alliance falls short of a majority in the Upper House, so until elections happen this summer he lacks a \u201cfull-fledged administration\u201d to carry out a conservative agenda.<\/p>\n

I believe this is over-optimistic. The LDP alliance already has 325 seats in Japan\u2019s overwhelmingly powerful Lower House \u2014 safely more than the 320 necessary to override Upper House vetoes. Moreover, as Japan\u2019s left was decimated in December\u2019s elections, about three-quarters of the Lower House is in the hands of avowed hard-right conservatives. Thus Abe already has his mandate.<\/p>\n

So this column will focus on what Abe, only the second person in postwar Japanese history given another chance at PM, is up to this time…<\/p>\n

Although LDP leaders were once reticent about public displays of affection towards Japan\u2019s hard right, Abe has been more unabashed. Within the past six months he has made two visits to controversial Yasukuni Shrine (once just before becoming LDP head, and once, officially, afterwards). Scholar Gavan McCormack unreservedly calls Abe \u201cthe most radical of all Japanese post-1945 leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now Abe and his minions are back in power with possibly the most right-wing Cabinet in history. Academic journal Japan Focus last week published a translation of an NGO report (japanfocus.org\/events\/view\/170) outlining the ultraconservative interest groups that Abe\u2019s 19 Cabinet members participate in. Three-quarters are members of groups favoring the political re-enfranchisement of \u201cShinto values\u201d and Yasukuni visits, two-thirds are in groups for remilitarizing Japan and denying wartime atrocities, and half are in groups seeking sanitation of school textbooks, adoption of a new \u201cunimposed\u201d Constitution, and protection of Japan from modernizing reforms (such as separate surnames for married couples) and outside influences (such as local suffrage for foreign permanent residents)…<\/p>\n

The current Abe administration is in pole position to drive Japan back to a xenophobic, ultra-rightist, militaristic Japan that we thought the world had seen the last of after two world wars. Abe can (and will, if left to his own devices) undo all the liberal reforms that postwar social engineers thought would forever overwrite the imperialist elements of Japanese society. In fact, it is now clear that Japan\u2019s conservative elite were just biding their time all along, waiting for their rehabilitation. It has come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19,50,52,20,4,14,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia","category-education","category-gaiatsu","category-hate-speech","category-history","category-japanese-government","category-japanese-politics","category-unsustainable-japanese-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11152\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}