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Japanese Premier Visits Contentious War Shrine With Shrine Visit, Japan’s Premier Asserts Shift From Pacifism
(about 11 hours later)
TOKYO — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan visited a contentious Tokyo war shrine early on Thursday, provoking swift condemnation from China and South Korea, both victims of Japan’s wartime aggression. TOKYO — Shinzo Abe’s past year as prime minister has concentrated chiefly on reviving Japan’s long-ailing economy. Yet in Mr. Abe’s mind, the country’s newfound economic prowess is a means to an end: to build a more powerful, assertive Japan, complete with a full-fledged military, as well as pride in its World War II-era past.
Wearing formal attire and followed by news media helicopters that broadcast his visit live on television, Mr. Abe led a group of government officials into the Yasukuni Shrine in central Tokyo to pay his respects. Television cameras were not allowed into the inner shrine. That larger agenda, which helped cut short Mr. Abe’s first stint in office in 2006-7, has again come to the forefront in recent weeks, culminating in his year-end visit Thursday to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors the nation’s war dead, including several war criminals who were executed after Japan’s defeat. Past visits by Japanese politicians have angered China and South Korea, both of which suffered greatly under Japan’s empire-building efforts in the 20th century.
Mr. Abe’s visit to the shrine, which honors Japan’s war dead, including Class A war criminals from the World War II era, was the first by a sitting Japanese prime minister since Junichiro Koizumi paid his respects there in 2006. The latest visit set off swift rebukes from officials in Beijing and Seoul, who accused Mr. Abe of trying to obscure imperial Japan’s atrocities. And in a rare criticism of a close ally, the new American ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, also expressed disappointment with Mr. Abe’s government.
Among those honored by the shrine, of Japan’s native Shinto religion, are several who were executed as war criminals after World War II. Past visits by Japanese politicians have angered China and South Korea, both of which suffered greatly under Japan’s empire-building efforts in the early 20th century. Mr. Abe has shown, however, that he is willing to take on big political risks to steer the country away from its postwar pacifism. Last month, he ignored blistering criticism from political opponents as well as the news media and steamrollered through Parliament a law that would tighten government control over state secrets. The law was presented by the government as a mechanism to aid in the sharing of military intelligence with allies, and create an American-style National Security Council.
Japanese prime ministers had stayed away from the shrine in recent years as the country sought to improve relations with China and South Korea. Mr. Abe has also increased military spending for the first time in a decade, and loosened self-imposed restrictions on exporting weapons. A new defense plan calls for the acquisition of drones and amphibious assault vehicles to prepare for the prospect of a prolonged rivalry with China.
Mr. Abe himself did not visit the shrine during his first stint as prime minister from 2006 to 2007, but he has since expressed regret for that. And experts say that next year, Mr. Abe could start taking concrete steps to reinterpret, and ultimately revise, Japan’s 1947 pacifist Constitution, something he has described as a life goal. Proposed changes could allow the country to officially maintain a standing army for the first time since the war, and take on a larger global security role.
Speaking to reporters after his brief visit, Mr. Abe expressed frustration that the shrine still provoked such controversy. He said that he had paid his respects not just to those who gave their lives serving Japan, but to fallen soldiers around the world. “The past year has given Mr. Abe confidence to start flying his own colors,” said Koji Murata, president of Doshisha University in Kyoto. “He is signaling to his supporters that he is a politician who will fight for his convictions.”
He added that it was normal for any national leader to honor the war dead, and that he had prayed for peace. Mr. Abe’s push is at once timely and risky. Regional anxiety over Beijing’s own rapid military buildup — and the relative decline of American influence here as Washington remains distracted by the Middle East — has seemed to set the stage for a more confident Japan. And tensions with China and South Korea have made a skeptical public more willing to accept Mr. Abe’s rightist agenda, including the establishment of a more robust military.
“Japan must never wage war again,” Mr. Abe said. “This is my conviction based on severe remorse for the past. It is not my intention at all to hurt the feelings of the Chinese and Korean people.” But territorial disputes, as well as sharp disagreements over the legacy of the war, also make for a dangerous backdrop to Japan’s rise. Japanese and Chinese patrol boats remain in a tense standoff near uninhabited islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, prompting concern among some military analysts that a miscalculation or accident could set off an armed confrontation.
But his visit came at a tense time. Japan is already involved in a standoff with China over control of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea and over a new air defense identification zone announced by China that includes airspace over the disputed islands. It is also embroiled in a dispute with South Korea over separate islets. Japan’s relations with South Korea are at rock-bottom because of a separate territorial dispute and disagreements over interpretations of history. Raised hopes for a reconciliation after recent reports of a meeting involving vice ministers from the two countries have been dashed by Mr. Abe’s Yasukuni visit.
Mr. Abe has been particularly scrutinized because he is known for his conservative views on Japanese history, and what his supporters describe as a personal desire to revise an overly negative portrayal of Japan’s actions during the war. He has questioned some accounts of Japan’s wartime conduct, including whether the military forced women across Asia into sexual servitude. “Mr. Abe has poured even more fuel on the fire,” said Tetsuya Takahashi, a professor of philosophy at the University of Tokyo and author of a best-selling book on the Yasukuni Shrine’s role in Japanese politics. “That does not bode well for Japan’s relations in Asia at all.”
He has also sought to bolster Japan’s military standing, increasing the country’s military spending for the first time in a decade and adopting a new defense plan that calls for the purchase of drones and amphibious assault vehicles to counter China’s rapid military buildup in the region. Mr. Abe has long said that Japan must ultimately revise its pacifist Constitution to allow for a fully developed military instead of a purely defensive force. Mr. Abe walks a fine line in part because the many facets of his agenda do not sit well together. For one, good relations with China — Tokyo’s largest trading partner — are critical to Japan’s ongoing economic recovery. Experts warn that taking a belligerent stance toward Beijing could deal another blow to Japanese business interests in China, and to Mr. Abe’s economic agenda.
Local news reports have said that some of his closest aides advised Mr. Abe to stay away from the shrine so he could focus on what has been the defining policy of his administration so far: reviving Japan’s economy. American officials had also expressed concern that historical issues may isolate Japan, the United States’ largest Asian ally, at a time when Washington faces a more assertive China and a nuclear North Korea. Nor do Mr. Abe’s deeply revisionist views of history — which he inherited from his grandfather Nobusuke Kishi, who was jailed for war crimes before eventually becoming prime minister — inspire confidence that Tokyo can play a bigger security role in Asia.
Still, since he took office exactly a year ago, Mr. Abe has sent offerings to the shrine, and several members of his cabinet have paid visits. Some of his supporters had said it was just a matter of time before the prime minister himself visited the shrine, especially as hopes for improved relations with either China or South Korea appeared slim anyway. Though Mr. Abe had never visited the shrine as prime minister before Thursday, he was a regular visitor as a lawmaker of the Liberal Democratic Party and most recently as opposition leader last year. Washington has generally been keen for Japan to take on a more active military presence in the region to counterbalance China’s growing might. But rather than become a stable ally, Tokyo has become another Asian problem for American officials because of its quarrels with Beijing.
China’s reaction to Mr. Abe’s visiting the shrine was swift. When Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel visited Japan in October, they paid their respects at a different cemetery for Japan’s unnamed war dead, in an apparent effort to nudge Japanese leaders away from visiting Yasukuni.
“The Chinese government expresses its strong indignation that Japanese leaders brutally trample the feelings of the Chinese and other Asian peoples victimized in wars,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “We solemnly urged the Japanese side to abide by the commitment to reflecting on its history of aggression, taking measures to correct its errors, eliminating its adverse effects, and taking concrete actions to win over the trusts of its Asian neighbors and the international community.” “In the end, Mr. Abe’s historical views diverge sharply from America’s,” Mr. Takahashi said. “After all, Mr. Abe does not believe in the postwar order that America established.”
Luo Zhaohui, director of the Foreign Ministry’s Asian affairs department, wrote on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo: “This is absolutely unacceptable to the Chinese people. It will cause great harm to the feelings of the Asian peoples and create a new, major political obstacle on bilateral relationships. Japan must bear the consequences.” Yet thanks to his early focus on the economy, Mr. Abe’s ratings of around 50 percent are high by recent Japanese standards; he faces no credible opposition and no nationwide elections are scheduled until 2016. His ruling Liberal Democratic Party won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections in July, giving it control over both chambers of Parliament, and the power to push through legislation.
South Korea also condemned Mr. Abe’s visit to the shrine. “Our government cannot help but deplore and express anger over the fact that Prime Minister Abe ignored the concerns and warnings of the neighboring countries and the world community and paid respect at the Yasukuni shrine, which glorifies Japan’s colonial rule and war of aggression,” Culture Minister Yoo Jin-ryong said in a statement. Mr. Abe has, at times, worked well with the Americans. For example, he was personally involved in a long-stalled plan to move an American Marine base on the island of Okinawa.
Mr. Yoo is the South Korean government’s top spokesman, and the decision to issue the statement in his name was a departure from the usual practice of issuing such comments through the Foreign Ministry. “It shows how seriously our government regards this incident,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Cho Tai-young, said at a news conference. “He began by focusing on economic revival, and cementing his support, which was wise,” said Eiji Yoshida, a professor of law at Kansai University in Osaka. “But he’s been waiting and waiting for the moment he can move on to his true agenda, and that moment is now.”
The United States also criticized Mr. Abe’s visit. China has little room to maneuver after last month unilaterally declaring a new air defense zone over the East China Sea islands, raising alarm across the region. In a direct challenge to threats by China that it could take military action against foreign aircraft entering the zone, the United States sent two unarmed B-52 bombers through the airspace, after which China appeared to backpedal from its threats.
“Japan is a valued ally and friend. Nevertheless, the United States is disappointed that Japan’s leadership has taken an action that will exacerbate tensions with Japan’s neighbors,” the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said in a statement Thursday. “China has already played its card. There’s little room for it to escalate matters over Prime Minister Abe’s visit,” Mr. Murata of Doshisha University said.
“The United States hopes that both Japan and its neighbors will find constructive ways to deal with sensitive issues from the past, to improve their relations and to promote cooperation in advancing our shared goals of regional peace and stability,” the statement read. Some analysts say that Mr. Abe did his best to minimize the fallout from his Yasukuni visit. He avoided worshiping there during the shrine’s seasonal religious festivals, or during politically or historically significant anniversaries.
Many Japanese conservatives say the visit should not be so politically charged, because it was simply meant to honor the 3.1 million military personnel and civilians who perished in World War II.
Mr. Abe himself made that claim, saying he contemplated on the “preciousness of peace” as he paid his respects at Yasukuni.
Few analysts, however, think that he will now turn his full focus back to the economy. Instead, the new year is likely to mark new steps to change the Constitution.
Mr. Abe has said he would first push to reinterpret the Constitution to allow Japan to take action on behalf of allies under attack. But he has made no secret that he would seek a wide-ranging revision of the document itself, allowing Japan a national army.
“Perhaps the most important lesson of Abe’s visit to Yasukuni is that despite claims that Abe is focused on economic recovery above all else, the prime minister does not believe that his mandate is limited to his economic policies,” said Tobias Harris, an expert on Japanese politics at Teneo Intelligence, an advisory firm.

Choe Sang-Hun contributed reporting from Seoul, South Korea. Patrick Zuo contributed research from Beijing, and Makiko Inoue and Hisako Ueno from Tokyo.

Choe Sang-Hun contributed reporting from Seoul, South Korea. Patrick Zuo contributed research from Beijing, and Makiko Inoue and Hisako Ueno from Tokyo.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: December 26, 2013Correction: December 26, 2013

An earlier version of this article misspelled the given name of the spokesman for the South Korean Foreign Ministry. He is Cho Tai-young, not Cho Tae-yong or Cho Tae-young.

An earlier version of this article misspelled the given name of the spokesman for the South Korean Foreign Ministry. He is Cho Tai-young, not Cho Tae-yong or Cho Tae-young.