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Nariaki Nakayama, the Japanese education and science minister, answering a question in the Diet on Tuesday, said there was no mention in the guidelines for the country's textbooks that Takeshima -- his name for the Dokdo Islets -- and Senkaku Islands are Japanese territory. "This must be clearly mentioned when [the guidelines] are revised next time," he said.
In November last year that same Nakayama said past Japanese textbooks were terribly self-lacerating and rejoiced that new textbooks were now talking less about "comfort women" drafted into sexual slavery for the country's military, or about forced conscription of the empire's subject peoples in general.
The education minister's remarks stand for the sentiment of Japan's own neocons, who are emerging as a new mainstream in its politics. They say Japan no longer needs to feel it owes a debt to the Asian countries it terrorized but should rather proudly expand its international role.
The neocons should listen carefully to warnings at home and abroad. Former Liberal Democratic Party secretary general Makoto Koga, a ruling party strongman, noted for one, "Asian trust is more important than anything else in Japan's diplomacy. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's imprudent political style has deepened conflicts with our neighbors."
Like Korea, China is also indignant at Japan's territorial avarice and whitewashing of past wrongs. Chinese supermarkets and restaurants are boycotting Japan's Asahi beer; and Chinese netizens have collected 10 million signatures opposing Japan's ambition to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
The country's neocons are possessed of the illusion that Japan can play an important role in the international community despite protests from its Asian neighbors if only it strengthens its alliance with Uncle Sam. They dream a dream of replaying their ancestors' model of 100 years ago, when they were poised to become a world power based on the secret Katsura-Taft treaty with the United States.
But South Korea and China today are quite different from the powerless Asia of a century ago. And the world order has changed to such an extent that the U.S. rather overstretched itself waging the Iraq War only based on its hard military power without consent from the international community. Japan's neocons must realize that their country will forever remain the political pygmy it is unless it first gains the trust and approval of Asia.
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