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¡°As there is Korean thinking in Korea, so there is Japanese thinking in Japan. Don¡¯t expect any changes that will transcend the current system.¡± That was what Nakagawa Shoichi told a delegation of Korean politicians who visited Japan in 2001 to protest against distortions of history in Japanese textbooks.
Four years later, Nakagawa is a core figure in the Japanese Cabinet as minister of economy, trade and industry. His comment is revealing of the mindset of a new generation of Japanese politicians. They believe there should be no more apologies, and Korea should not be shown any exceptional consideration.
The core group of young lawmakers in their 40s and 50s, dubbed "Japan's neocons", think in a completely different fashion from the ¡°boei-zoku¡± - lawmakers with close ties to the Japanese Self Defense Force - and the ethnic nationalists of the past. Core figures of the group include Abe Shinzo, 51, the acting secretary-general of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and top North Korea hardliner; Ishiba Shigeru, 47, a former minister of state for Defense; Nakagawa Shoichi, 52; and 47-year-old Yamamoto Ichita, who heads the LDP team studying economic sanctions on North Korea.
Since they entered politics, they have moved past factionalism, struck alliances with lawmakers with defense links and formed their own study groups. All are confirmed proponents of changing the Japanese constitution. There are similar groups in the opposition party as well. Maehara Seiji, 48, of the Democratic Party of Japan is so hardline that he once said that if North Korea tested a Taepodong missile, Japan¡¯s Self-Defense Force would shoot it down. The bipartisan ¡°Young Lawmaker¡¯s Group for Establishing Security in the New Century¡± is the neocons' Masonic lodge.
Many of the neocons, most of whom inherited their positions, studied abroad. They are fiercely proud of Japan and stress the country's international role. As members of a postwar generation imagining itself free of responsibility for Japan¡¯s conquests and wartime history, they no longer view the Korea-Japan relationship as in any way special. On the contrary, they want it rebuilt into a ¡°normal relationship¡±.
Tension and conflicts between Korea and Japan brings out their disposition.
A good example are the negotiations for a free trade agreement between the two countries, at a virtual standstill because Japan will not yield on agricultural imports. A Korean Foreign Ministry official said in earlier economic negotiations with Japan, the Koreans only needed to bring up Japan's past wrongdoings to get the Japanese to concede a point. No longer. Korean negotiators have given up playing the wartime atrocities card, he added.
In a standoff last year over Korea¡¯s decision to print Dokdo Islet stamps, Tokyo sent a statement condemning the stamps through the Universal Postal Union to 190 member nations. In the past, it would have ended at only one protest letter. Nor are Japan¡¯s neocons interested in Korean protests over distortions of history in Japanese textbooks.
Seoul University historian Park Cheol-hee, 42, said Japan¡¯s younger generation of politicians feel no debt over the past. He said previous generations of Japanese politicians showed some degree of special consideration for Korea, but this was simply no longer true.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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