{"id":12128,"date":"2014-02-19T09:36:46","date_gmt":"2014-02-19T19:36:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12128"},"modified":"2014-02-19T09:36:46","modified_gmt":"2014-02-19T19:36:46","slug":"bloomberg-column-a-rebuke-to-japanese-nationalism-gets-it-about-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12128","title":{"rendered":"Bloomberg column: “A rebuke to Japanese nationalism”, gets it about right"},"content":{"rendered":"

eBooks, Books, and more from ARUDOU Debito (click on icon):
\n\"Guidebookcover.jpg\"<\/a>\"japaneseonlyebookcovertext\"<\/a>\"Handbook<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\u300c\u30b8\u30e3\u30d1\u30cb\u30fc\u30ba\u30fb\u30aa\u30f3\u30ea\u30fc\u3000\u5c0f\u6a3d\u5165\u6d74\u62d2\u5426\u554f\u984c\u3068\u4eba\u7a2e\u5dee\u5225\u300d\uff08\u660e\u77f3\u66f8\u5e97\uff09\"<\/a>\"sourstrawberriesavatar\"<\/a>\"debitopodcastthumb\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>
\nUPDATES ON TWITTER: arudoudebito
\nDEBITO.ORG PODCASTS on iTunes, subscribe free
\n“LIKE” US on Facebook at http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/debitoorg<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.facebook.com\/handbookimmigrants<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JapaneseOnlyTheBook<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BookInAppropriate<\/a>
\nIf you like what you read and discuss on Debito.org, please consider helping us stop hackers and defray maintenance costs with a little Paypal donation:<\/p>\n


\n
\n
\n\"\"<\/form>\n

Thanks for your support!<\/i><\/p>\n

Hi Blog. Although I have been commenting at length at Japan’s right-wing swing<\/a>, I have focused little on the geopolitical aspects (particularly how both China and Japan have been lobbying their cases before the congress of world opinion), because Debito.org is more focused on life and human rights in Japan, and the geopolitics of spin isn’t quite my specialty. That said, I’m happy to cite other articles that get the analysis pretty much right. Here are two, one from Bloomberg, the other from Reuters. After all, Japan can take its constant “victim” narrative only so far, especially in light of its history, and that distance is generally its border. \u00a0These articles highlight how outsiders are increasingly unconvinced by the GOJ’s behavior and invective, despite the longstanding bent towards giving Japan the benefit of the doubt as a regional ally<\/a>. \u00a0ARUDOU, Debito<\/p>\n

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

A Rebuke to Japanese Nationalism<\/em><\/strong>
\n By The Editors Bloomberg News, Feb 16, 2014<\/em><\/strong>
\n http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/2014-02-16\/a-rebuke-to-japanese-nationalism.html?cmpid=yhoo.view<\/a><\/em><\/strong>
\n Courtesy of Baudrillard<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A series of recent blunt statements from U.S. officials have left no doubt that Washington blames China\u2019s maritime expansionism for rising tensions in Asia. Now, America\u2019s main ally in the region needs to hear a similarly forthright message.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Japan had been clamoring for the U.S. to speak out more forcefully after China imposed an \u201cair-defense identification zone\u201d over a set of islands claimed by both countries. Officials in Tokyo have warned that any hint of daylight between Americans and Japanese only encourages further bullying from the mainland. For that same reason, U.S. officials have tempered their criticism of statements and actions by Japanese leaders that irk China, not to mention other victims of Japanese aggression during World War II.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This circumspection is becoming counterproductive. Since China imposed its air-defense identification zone in November, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has visited the deeply controversial Yasukuni shrine, which honors, along with millions of fallen soldiers from various conflicts, 14 Class A war criminals from World War II. What\u2019s more, several of Abe\u2019s nominees to the board of the state broadcaster NHK have made appallingly retrograde comments that Abe has declined to disavow. One claimed the horrific 1937 Nanjing Massacre never took place, while another pooh-poohed complaints that the Japanese military had exploited thousands of women from Korea and elsewhere as sex slaves during the war. Other Abe allies are busily trying to rewrite textbooks to downplay Japan\u2019s wartime brutality.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Japanese officials seem unconcerned with the impression all this creates abroad, arguing that relations with China and even with fellow U.S. ally South Korea can hardly get worse, and in any case are unlikely to improve so long as nationalists remain in power in those countries. A more conciliatory Japanese attitude, they are convinced, would only prompt endless humiliating demands from Beijing and Seoul.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Worse, Japan seems to be taking U.S. backing for granted. Abe went to Yasukuni even after Vice President Joe Biden quietly urged him not to. Details of their conversation were then strategically leaked, presumably to showcase Abe\u2019s defiant stance. In private, Japanese officials snipe about the Barack Obama administration\u2019s alleged unreliability. Anything other than unstinting support for Japan is taken as a lack of backbone.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The U.S. should push back, and less gently than usual. President Obama\u2019s trip to Asia in April is an opportunity for the White House not only to reaffirm its disapproval of Chinese adventurism but also to make clear that Abe\u2019s provocations are threatening stability in the region, and damaging the U.S.-Japan alliance.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This won\u2019t change many minds inside Abe\u2019s inner circle, of course. But most Japanese are acutely sensitive to any hint of U.S. displeasure. (Nearly 70 percent of respondents to one poll called on Abe to heed the negative reaction to his Yasukuni visit, which included a mild expression of \u201cdisappointment\u201d from U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy.) Voters threw out Abe once before when he let nationalist obsessions distract him from minding the economy. Sustained domestic pressure is needed to rein him in again.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Abe is not necessarily wrong to want to make Japan a more muscular nation \u2014 to rejuvenate its economy, open up its society and normalize its self-defense forces. A more robust Japanese military could play a bigger role in promoting global and regional stability \u2014 whether through anti-piracy patrols or peacekeeping missions \u2014 and come to the defense of its allies. Inflaming Chinese and Korean sensitivities helps achieve none of those goals.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

All it does is raise the likelihood of conflict in the region. That Abe\u2019s recent actions and comments may be less dangerous than China\u2019s adventurism is beside the point. He\u2019s eroding the international goodwill that Japan has built up over decades as a responsible democracy \u2014 all for no good reason. If he can\u2019t see that for himself, perhaps the U.S. \u2014 and his own citizens \u2014 can help him.<\/em><\/strong>
\nENDS<\/p>\n

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

NATIONAL \/ POLITICS & DIPLOMACY<\/strong>
\n Abe put Japan on back foot in global PR war with China<\/strong>
\n BY LINDA SIEG AND BEN BLANCHARD<\/strong>
\n REUTERS, FEB 17, 2014<\/strong>
\nCourtesy http:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/news\/2014\/02\/17\/national\/abe-put-japan-on-back-foot-in-global-pr-war-with-china<\/a><\/p>\n

Japan risks losing a global PR battle with China after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe\u2019s visit to a controversial shrine for war dead and comments by other prominent figures on the wartime past helped Beijing try to paint Tokyo as the villain of Asia.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sino-Japanese ties have long been plagued by territorial rows, regional rivalry and disputes stemming from China\u2019s bitter memories of Japan\u2019s occupation of parts of the country before and during World War II.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Relations chilled markedly after a feud over disputed East China Sea isles flared in 2012.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Beijing, however, has stepped up its campaign to sway international public opinion since Abe\u2019s Dec. 26 visit to Tokyo\u2019s Yasukuni Shrine. The shrine is seen by critics as a symbol of Japan\u2019s past militarism because it honors leaders convicted as Class-A war criminals with millions of war dead.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That strategy has helped China shift some of the debate away from its growing military assertiveness in Asia, including double-digit defense spending increases and the recent creation of an air defense identification zone in the East China Sea that was condemned by Tokyo and Washington, experts said.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, this is a real war,\u201d said Shin Tanaka, president of the FleishmanHillard Japan Group in Tokyo, a communications consultancy.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cJapan and China are using missiles called \u2018messages\u2019 and the reality is that a lot of damage is already happening in both countries,\u201d he added, warning of a mutual backlash of nationalist emotions and potential harm to business ties.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Abe has repeatedly said he did not visit the shrine to honor war criminals but to pay his respects to those who died for their country and pledge Japan would never again go to war.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Getting that message across is not easy, communications and political experts said. Abe\u2019s Yasukuni visit \u201cgave China the opportunity . . . to attack Japan and send the message that China is the good guy and Japan is the bad guy,\u201d Tanaka said.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Some Japanese diplomats and officials dismissed any suggestion they were worried, saying Tokyo\u2019s rebuttals and the country\u2019s postwar record of peace would win the day.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cTheir Goebbelsian PR binge \u2014 repeat it 100 times then it becomes true, ungrounded or not \u2014 shows all the symptoms of a Leninist regime still remaining in the 21st century,\u201d Tomohiko Taniguchi, a councilor in the Cabinet secretariat of the prime minister\u2019s office, said in an email.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

He was referring to Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler\u2019s minister of propaganda from 1933 to 1945.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYes we feel annoyed, but the next moment we relax for we have nothing to be ashamed of.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Still, experts said Abe\u2019s shrine visit had made it easier for Beijing to try to link Abe\u2019s plans to bolster the military and loosen limits on the pacifist Constitution to Japan\u2019s militarist past.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe most fundamental thing they say is to assert that Japan is going on a path of militarism a la the 1930s. That\u2019s just nonsense,\u201d said Daniel Sneider, associate director for research at Stanford University\u2019s Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. \u201cBut the problem is the Chinese are able to blur a lot of this stuff because of what Abe did.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Recent remarks about Japan\u2019s wartime past by the chairman of NHK and members of its board of governors have added grist to China\u2019s PR mill.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Among those remarks were comments by new NHK Chairman Katsuto Momii, who told a news conference last month that the \u201ccomfort women\u201d \u2014 a euphemism for the vast number of females forced to work in Japanese wartime military brothels \u2014 had counterparts in every country at war at that time. He later apologized.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

NHK\u2019s chief is selected by a board of governors that includes four Abe appointees.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Since the start of the year, Chinese ambassadors and other officials have targeted Japan 69 times in media around the world, the Foreign Ministry said in Tokyo. The campaign includes interviews, written commentaries and news conferences.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As of Feb. 10, Japan had issued rebuttals in 67 cases with the other two under review, Foreign Ministry spokesman Masaru Sato said.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Asked if China had won over international opinion, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said countries such as South Korea \u2014 where memories of Japan\u2019s 1910-1945 colonial rule run deep \u2014 had also criticized Tokyo.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe mistaken ways of the Japanese leader have incurred the strong opposition of the international community,\u201d Hua told reporters. \u201cChina is willing to work with other victims of the war and the international community to uphold historical justice.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The verbal jousting has spanned the globe from capitals such as London and Washington to remote Fiji and South Sudan.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The best known exchanges are the \u201cVoldemort attacks\u201d in which China\u2019s ambassador to Britain, Liu Xiaoming, last month compared Japan to the villain in the Harry Potter children\u2019s book series. In reply, Japan\u2019s envoy, Keiichi Hayashi, said China risked becoming \u201cAsia\u2019s Voldemort.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to explain that Japan faces its history squarely and has expressed remorse . . . (and that) Japan will continue to pursue the path of a peace-loving country,\u201d Sato said.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes they try to link the visit to the shrine to security policy. That is a totally unrelated matter.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Still, some in Japan fear that China\u2019s PR blitz is having an impact on world opinion.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cA lie is repeated so that people are brainwashed and start to believe it,\u201d Akira Sato, head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party\u2019s panel on defense policy, told Reuters.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Echoed a Western diplomat in Beijing: \u201cChina is being successful at getting its message across while Japan keeps saying stupid things like questioning the existence of comfort women. I think (China) has changed opinions.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Tokyo\u2019s mostly reactive approach, some PR experts said, was not enough to sway international public opinion, a worry some Japanese diplomats share privately.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cJapan is very worried that China is winning this propaganda war,\u201d said an Asian diplomat based in Beijing. \u201cTheir diplomats have been asking how they can better put their side of the story and win people over in the West.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That could be tough if Abe declines to say whether he will visit Yasukuni again or other prominent Japanese figures make contentious comments on wartime history, experts said.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Other matters, such as revisionist changes to Japanese textbooks to promote patriotism, could add fuel to the fire.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cEven if he doesn\u2019t go to Yasukuni again, there are plenty of issues on their (the Japanese government\u2019s) agenda,\u201d Sneider said.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Although I have been commenting at length at Japan’s right-wing swing, I have focused little on the geopolitical aspects (particularly how both China and Japan have been lobbying their cases before the congress of world opinion), because Debito.org is more focused on life and human rights in Japan, and the geopolitics of spin isn’t quite my specialty. That said, I’m happy to cite other articles that get the analysis pretty much right. Here are two, one from Bloomberg, the other from Reuters. After all, Japan can take its constant “victim” narrative only so far, especially in light of its history, and that distance is generally its border. These articles highlight how outsiders are increasingly unconvinced by the GOJ’s behavior and invective, despite the longstanding bent towards giving Japan the benefit of the doubt as a regional ally.<\/p>\n

Bloomberg: Since China imposed its air-defense identification zone in November, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has visited the deeply controversial Yasukuni shrine, which honors, along with millions of fallen soldiers from various conflicts, 14 Class A war criminals from World War II. What\u2019s more, several of Abe\u2019s nominees to the board of the state broadcaster NHK have made appallingly retrograde comments that Abe has declined to disavow. One claimed the horrific 1937 Nanjing Massacre never took place, while another pooh-poohed complaints that the Japanese military had exploited thousands of women from Korea and elsewhere as sex slaves during the war. Other Abe allies are busily trying to rewrite textbooks to downplay Japan\u2019s wartime brutality.<\/p>\n

Japanese officials seem unconcerned with the impression all this creates abroad, arguing that relations with China and even with fellow U.S. ally South Korea can hardly get worse, and in any case are unlikely to improve so long as nationalists remain in power in those countries. A more conciliatory Japanese attitude, they are convinced, would only prompt endless humiliating demands from Beijing and Seoul.<\/p>\n

Worse, Japan seems to be taking U.S. backing for granted. Abe went to Yasukuni even after Vice President Joe Biden quietly urged him not to. Details of their conversation were then strategically leaked, presumably to showcase Abe\u2019s defiant stance. In private, Japanese officials snipe about the Barack Obama administration\u2019s alleged unreliability. Anything other than unstinting support for Japan is taken as a lack of backbone. The U.S. should push back, and less gently than usual. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,20,4,48,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gaiatsu","category-history","category-japanese-government","category-shoe-on-the-other-foot-dept","category-tangents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12128","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=12128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12128\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}