{"id":11408,"date":"2013-05-03T16:33:08","date_gmt":"2013-05-04T02:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11408"},"modified":"2013-05-03T16:35:28","modified_gmt":"2013-05-04T02:35:28","slug":"nyt-editorial-japans-unnecessary-nationalism-re-the-trappings-of-gojs-rightward-swing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11408","title":{"rendered":"NYT Editorial: Japan\u2019s “Unnecessary Nationalism”, re the trappings of GOJ’s rightward swing"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. \u00a0Here’s a tight little editorial from the NYT, focusing on Japan’s “unnecessary” geopolitical disputes. \u00a0This is before the issue of the LDP’s constitutional reform proposals have come up,<\/a> injecting an even more insidious and invidious degree of nationalism. \u00a0No doubt we’ll get a good treatment of the latter issue by constitutional scholars on places like Japan Focus, so I’ll save blog space for then. \u00a0I’m just glad that the dangers Debito.org has been advising the media about are sinking in overseas — which is good, as it’s the only way that Japan’s unaccountable ruling elite will possibly be deterred from their path away from excoriating “Western democracy<\/a>” as something anathema to “Japanese values”. \u00a0Arudou Debito<\/p>\n

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EDITORIAL<\/strong>
\n Japan\u2019s Unnecessary Nationalism<\/strong>
\n By THE EDITORIAL BOARD, New York Times<\/strong>
\n Published: April 23, 2013, Courtesy of AS<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/04\/24\/opinion\/japans-unnecessary-nationalism.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Since taking over as Japan\u2019s prime minister in December, Shinzo Abe and his conservative Liberal Democratic Party have been juggling a packed agenda of complicated issues, including reviving the country\u2019s economy, coping with the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami and managing prickly relations with neighbors like North Korea. Stirring up extraneous controversy is counterproductive, but that\u2019s exactly what he and his nationalist allies in Parliament have done.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

On Tuesday, a group of 168 mostly low-ranking conservative lawmakers visited the Yasukuni Shrine in central Tokyo, which honors Japan\u2019s war dead, including several who were executed as war criminals after World War II. It was the largest mass visit by Parliament in recent memory. The Japanese news media said that Mr. Abe didn\u2019t visit the shrine, instead sending a ritual offering, but his deputy prime minister and two other ministers made a pilgrimage there over the weekend. He has a record of defending Japan\u2019s conduct during World War II.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Abe and his allies know well what a deeply sensitive issue this is for China and South Korea, which suffered under Japan\u2019s 20th-century empire-building and militarism, and the reaction was predictable. On Monday, South Korea canceled a visit to Japan by its foreign minister and China publicly chastised Japan. On Tuesday, tensions were further fueled when Chinese and Japanese boats converged on disputed islands in the East China Sea.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Japan and China both need to work on a peaceful solution to their territorial issues. But it seems especially foolhardy for Japan to inflame hostilities with China and South Korea when all countries need to be working cooperatively to resolve the problems with North Korea and its nuclear program.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Instead of exacerbating historical wounds, Mr. Abe should focus on writing Japan\u2019s future, with an emphasis on improving its long-stagnant economy and enhancing its role as a leading democracy in Asia and beyond.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

NYT: Since taking over as Japan\u2019s prime minister in December, Shinzo Abe and his conservative Liberal Democratic Party have been juggling a packed agenda of complicated issues, including reviving the country\u2019s economy, coping with the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami and managing prickly relations with neighbors like North Korea. Stirring up extraneous controversy is counterproductive, but that\u2019s exactly what he and his nationalist allies in Parliament have done. On Tuesday, a group of 168 mostly low-ranking conservative lawmakers visited the Yasukuni Shrine in central Tokyo, which honors Japan\u2019s war dead, including several who were executed as war criminals after World War II. It was the largest mass visit by Parliament in recent memory… <\/p>\n

Japan and China both need to work on a peaceful solution to their territorial issues. But it seems especially foolhardy for Japan to inflame hostilities with China and South Korea when all countries need to be working cooperatively to resolve the problems with North Korea and its nuclear program. Instead of exacerbating historical wounds, Mr. Abe should focus on writing Japan\u2019s future, with an emphasis on improving its long-stagnant economy and enhancing its role as a leading democracy in Asia and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,52,4,14,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gaiatsu","category-hate-speech","category-japanese-government","category-japanese-politics","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11408","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=11408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11408\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}