The Slowly Simmering Pot Heats Up

摘要

The pot has been slowly simmering since last summer, but it entered a new phase of uncertainly following changes in leadership in both Tokyo and Beijing. In December, Japanese voters returned to power the conservative Liberal Democratic Party, erasing an ignominious defeat three years earlier to the center-left Democratic Party of Japan. The new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has a well-deserved reputation as a conservative nationalist, one who decries the demand for Japan to apologize for its wartime past and advocates a Japan proud of its past and ready to shake off postwar restrictions on its military role and leadership aspirations in Asia.