Rare it is that I find myself reading an essay where I am in total concord with the views expressed.
That is why I am a bit taken aback by Takahashi Kosuke's essay for The Diplomat entitled "Shinzo Abe’s Nationalist Strategy" (Link). The opening sentence is shaky but the rest of the piece is solid.
It is clear that what underlies Abe Shinzo's attempt to escape from the postwar regime is the faith that the United States will sign off on on pretty much any plan changing Japan's position in the world order as long as interoperability of Japanese Self Defense Forces and U.S. military arms is increased. What is unclear is whether the Abe team is aware that keeping the Pentagon happy is only one facet of a program of increased national resilience -- that the ideological self-indulgences of the escape from the postwar regime can interfere with the hard work of restructuring the economy for growth.
Tip of the hat for the link to Neojaponisme.
A guide to Japan’s general election
5 weeks ago
4 comments:
Seems to me that Abe is pretty much correct that the US will sign off on about anything he does as long as we can keep our unsinkable aircraft carrier in Asia.
I have to wonder if the US is aware that there just might possibly be things of more importance than a military relationship with Japan. If so, it must be a secret.
"ideological self-indulgences of the escape from the postwar regime can interfere with the hard work of restructuring the economy for growth."
Or can create a rally round the flag effect to set an agenda that subsumes the economy.
-Jill
Jill -
Re: rally 'round the flag effect
That is just not the way the door swings for Abe. In both Abe 1.0 and Abe 2.0, Abe has been most popular when he has acted contrary to his revisionist roots. Under the 2.0 regime, reisionist irruptions have been seen/portrayed/panned as distractions from the economic programs.
True, but he badly mis-framed his agenda in the past.
Framed in a somewhat different way, would have more chance of garnering support.
Even with the same framing, the thrust and parry approach in which they engage normalizes nationalist rhetoric.
Jill
Post a Comment