|
REPORT COPYRIGHT VIOLATION IN MESSAGE
|
|
Subject
|
One thing is sure, the right wingers are gonna take over Japan on December 19
|
|
Poster Handle
|
Anonymous Coward |
|
Post Content
|
[ link to www.globalpost.com] Who will rule Japan? Nationalism.
There is no clear frontrunner in pre-election Japan, but the candidates are playing right into the hands of Japan’s hawks.
Although no party is projected to win a majority, the candidate most likely to become Japan’s seventh prime minister in six years appears to be Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader Shinzo Abe. Abe has issued a conservative wish list that includes allowing Japan’s military to exercise the right to collective self-defense — coming to the aid of an ally under attack — and revising its postwar “pacifist” constitution.
But the price of a more robust Japan could be increased tensions with China, possibly putting it on a dangerous trajectory towards a conflict in which US involvement would be almost inevitable.
Perhaps most worrying for the rest of the region, and for US officials who fear a more unpredictable Japan, is the emergence of the Japan Restoration Party, lead by Tokyo’s outspoken former governor, Shintaro Ishihara, and Osaka’s hawkish mayor, Toru Hashimoto.
Despite its youth and confusion over its stance on nuclear power, Ishihara’s party lies second in some opinion polls behind the LDP. Come Dec. 17, he could find himself playing the role of power broker.
Aside from revising the constitution, his party wants Japan to break its self-imposed limit on defense spending of one percent of GDP, and to further relax controls on weapons technology exports.
“But if Japan’s deepening nationalist mood leads to symbolic and populist positions that win votes at home but antagonize its neighbors, both Japan and the world will be worse off,” he wrote in a recent syndicated column. “What happens in Japanese politics over the coming months will ripple far beyond the country’s shores.”
|
|
|
Please verify you're human:
|
|
|
Reason for copyright violation:
|
