Commentary

The new Japan

A week after Shinzo Abe, Japan’s new prime minister, was elected by a two-
thirds majority in the lower house of parliament, North Korea announced that
it would carry out a nuclear weapons test. Abe’s response to the latest
irrational utterance from the warped kingdom of Mr. Kim was very firm;
this would be considered an unforgivable act, and it would demand a firm
international response.

This may be one of the first tests for Japan’s new prime minister. After Kim’s
fourth of July missile test extravaganza, Abe, then chief cabinet secretary to
prime minister Koizumi, believed that Japan should consider the possibility of a
preemptive strike on North Korean missile sites.

The harsher stance against North Korea stems from Abe’s conviction that Japan
should take pride in their country. He is the first prime minister born after World
War II, and seems determined to rid Japan of its war guilt and its pacifist constitution.
In his recent book “Toward a Beautiful Country”, he questions the legitimacy of the
war crimes tribunal that convicted Japan’s leaders at the time of the conflict. Abe
also casts some doubt on merits of the 1995 apology, which recognized WWII as an
act of Japanese aggression, and was upheld unambiguously by his predecessor,
Koizumi. Abe acknowledges its spirit, but feels that historians should be the final
judge of that episode, in other words, get back to him in another fifty years.

Japan’s self-confidence did not emerge over night. It was initially cultivated under
prime minister/Elvis look-alike, Junichiro Koizumi, Abe’s predecessor. Koizumi is
responsible for restructuring Japan’s dominant, though stagnant, Liberal Democratic
Party. Japan now has a smaller central government, a new faith in the free market,
and a more vigorous presence in the international community.

Koizumi left office with approval ratings hovering around 50 percent, the highest for
any prime minister with that many years in office. He pushed through significant
reforms, including the deregulation of industries, the forced clean up of the banking
system’s balance sheets after the pile-up of bad real estate and business loans
incurred during the bubble decade of the 1980s. and he reduced wasteful public
spending projects (maybe he could run for US president in 2008- everybody loves
Elvis!).

Although, Japan’s public finances were under severe strain through the 1990s, with
the economy on life support, fighting off bouts of deflation and sluggish consumer
spending. This alone dealt a serious blow to a political system that survived by
doling out expensive public works projects to its main supporters in coddled
industries. Another blow to the status quo came in 1993 when the LDP was ousted
and electoral reforms were passed. This was the only time during the post WWII
period that the LDP was not in charge, and it did not even last a full calendar year.

As for the recent economic recovery, much of the credit can be attributed to the
Booming Chinese economy. Although the two nations are competitors in the region,
they are tied together through trade, and China’s surge in activity has benefited
many Japanese firms.

Even though circumstances helped lead the way toward reform in Japan, it was
Koizumi’s style that pushed much of it forward. He spoke firmly and bluntly to
his nation, at one point he told the public to anticipate pain as structural reforms
worked through Japan’s political and economic institutions. He moved boldly from
the Japanese tradition of rule by consensus, and was causing waves within his
own party.

Koizumi’s effort to reform the Japanese postal savings system, long a cash cow for
The LDP, was voted down by his own party. Instead of backing down to the
starched and encrusted party elders, he used his immense popularity to hold snap
parliamentary elections. This move not only ensured postal savings reform, it cleared
the decks of many of his opponents. Now the money that had provided sustenance
for a decaying political machine would instead feed into economic development.

Koizumi may also be seen as the Tony Blair of Asia, he has been a staunch supporter
of the war in Iraq, supporting a special law that allowed for a designated construction
brigade to operate alongside coalition troops. Even though this seemed in direct
violation of the pacifist spirit of Japan’s pacifist constitution, his stature remained
intact. Koizumi has managed to strengthen ties with the US while maintaining his domestic popularity. Tony must be so envious.

But, pride in Japan’s latest economic recovery and its more visible presence in
world affairs has been accompanied by a heightened sense of nationalism. Koizumi,
to exhibit his pride in Japan, broke with his predecessors and visited the Yasukuni
Shrine, which is a Shinto memorial that houses many of the nation’s war criminals.
As a result of these visits, China and South Korea have refused high level talks
with Japan.

Even the nation’s history books are starting to exhibit a new sense of pride as war
guilt recedes from the memory of a younger generation. The realities of Japan’s
brutal occupation of China and South Korea have been erased from many
government sanctioned text books.

This is where Abe steps in. Much has been said of his nationalist tendencies and
the concerns about Japan’s new direction, but it was his predecessor that laid
much of the foundation upon which Abe now stands. Japan has suffered fifteen
years of economic stagnation as a result of the bursting of twin bubbles in the
stock and real estate markets. It has also been sixty one years since the end of
WWII. Now the Japanese economy is showing more tangible signs of life, and
the war a fading memory, a new sense of honor has surfaced to blanket a painful
past.

With the headlong dash from acknowledgement to denial comes the risk of
repeating past mistakes. Japan’s actions in WWII should not be in dispute,
especially by someone holding the post of prime minister. I don’t think anyone,
aside from Mel Gibson, would question the behavior of the German war machine
in WWII. Historians have provided a wealth of disturbing evidence that attests
to the atrocious conduct of Japan’s wartime leaders during WWII.

Japan is a country that harbors tremendous economic and cultural resources, and
it would be disastrous for those in power to encourage the electorate to deny the
grave errors made during the WWII era. If Japan wishes to display its strength as
a nation, it must embrace the lessons offered by past mistakes.

Greg Strid

© 2006 Splendid Marbles.