[skeeter]

There's nothing inherently wrong with nationalism, its the scapegoating often inserted by politicians thats dangerous.

[DTogo]

“What I am concerned about is the very strong anti-Chinese, anti-Korean and sometimes anti-American nationalism that is prevailing in Japan.”

Prevailing?? Since when?

Mr Abe’s advisers say the would-be prime minister is merely trying to draw a line under six decades of “self-flagellation” under which, they say, schools have taught successive generations that Japan was uniquely wicked in the war.

Ending the "self-flagellation" would be a good thing for Japan, if there ever was any to begin with. And since when have Japanese schools ever taught students the true wickedness of Imperial Japan??

Japan * ping * (kono risuto ni hairitai ka detai wo shirasete kudasai : let me know if you want on or off this list)

[Semus Dynnen]

Good.

Turn 'em loose on China.

[struggle]

Complete bull. Nationalist Japanese number as many as Neo-nazi's in America. They have black trucks with megaphones...oooooh.

[billhilly]

"The attack on Mr Kato’s home by a suspected right-wing fanatic followed repeated warnings by the veteran Liberal Democratic party politician against the wisdom of prime ministerial visits to the Yasukuni shrine."

Which AP writer is moonlighting as a Japanese stringer?

[Tinman73]

Looks like they are getting ready for the North Korea threat..

[Retain Mike]

I agree with skeeter that there is nothing inherently wrong with nationalism. Japan's nationalism has a unique character we do not begin to get. I have read a lot of books on Japan, but David Bergamini in "Japan's Imperial Conspiracy" seems to come closest. Also, it helps to try to figure out Kokutai, which is a spiritual combination of Emperor, citizen, land, ancestral spirits, government, and Shinto religion woven together into a several thousand-year heritage. Western societies are driven by election cycles, but Japan is not. In Bergamini's book you get the best sense I have seen of a force driving this society through the millennia that is never revealed to the West, but is understood by Korea and China. At the present moment Japan may quietly pave the way to move publicly away from our military protection. I think a lot of Japanese are asking why the U.S. would risk a nuclear strike on their country, just because a Japanese city was incinerated.

[Cacique]

l8r read

[Centurion2000]

Actually the Japanese should be the USA's best weapon again idiot Chinese Generals threatening to nuke us.

US: You nuke us, who will hold the Japanese back next time?

[danmar]

Mr Abe’s advisers say the would-be prime minister is merely trying to draw a line under six decades of “self-flagellation” under which, they say, schools have taught successive generations that Japan was uniquely wicked in the war. Mr Abe, they say, wants to restore a “healthy nationalism” in which people are proud of their country’s culture and achievements.

Me thinks the same. Let Japan take care of their own History on their own. We do not need to baby sit Japan anymore and/or impose our own views upon them.

They are a very proud nation, rich History and perfectly capable to right the wrongs in their past.
We should leave Japan completely, for they are fully capable to protect themselves.

We should release them out of the contract drafted and signed in 1945 when the war ended, and let the Japanese decide their own fate on their own, the way they see fit.

[Billthedrill]

There is a subtle psychology at play here. Japan, for all its technological virtuosity, educational achievement, and economic clout, is relegated to a distant second in the international media to a clown such as Kim and a non-country such as North Korea. Maybe not even that. And second place to any Korean is as insulting as you can be to a Japanese.

And more directly, some of it is a direct result of having a frizzy-haired punk whose country has absolutely nothing but misery to offer either the world or its own citizens, loft missiles their direction and on one occasion over their territory. It'd tick me off too.