Yasukuni litmus test looms for Japan’s new PM Takaichi

Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is under growing pressure from nationalist conservatives to make a high-profile visit to Tokyo’s controversial Yasukuni Shrine, a symbolic move that analysts warn could embolden the country’s far-right and strain relations with neighbours. While Takaichi has long championed visits to the shrine, which honours Japan’s war dead including 14 convicted Class A war criminals, she has so far held off as leader – opting instead to send a ritual offering during the autumn festival. But her ascent to the top of the country’s politics has raised expectations among right-wing figures that she may now take bolder ideological steps, with Yasukuni seen as a crucial litmus test. “A prime minister’s visit to Yasukuni is a declaration of intent to confront injustice,” said Toshio Tamogami, a former air force chief known for his hardline views. In a social media post last Friday, he urged Takaichi to pay her respects at the shrine in person to “bring closure” to the issue and warned that failing to do so would show weakness in the face of foreign pressure. Tamogami, who was dismissed in 2008 after publishing an essay justifying Japan’s wartime aggression, claimed Takaichi had skipped visiting during the festival to avoid upsetting “pro-China factions” in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party ahead of last month’s leadership vote. Now that she was in power, he argued there was no excuse. “A prime minister’s visit to Yasukuni is a declaration of intent to confront injustice. Until she does this, she will face various criticisms,” he said. “If strong pressure is applied, she will be judged both domestically and internationally as someone who will yield to any unreasonable demand.” Tadashi Anno, a professor of politics at Tokyo’s Sophia University, said there were parallels between the political priorities of Takaichi and former prime minister Shinzo Abe after he took power in December 2012. “Abe had a strong conservative agenda, but his priority at the time had to be the economy,” Anno told This Week in Asia. “To make progress there, he had to make sure that Japan-US relations were good and visiting Yasukuni would not only have upset Japan’s neighbours, but the US and Europe as well.” While the relationship between Tokyo and Washington today is very different, Takaichi will have grasped that it will be important in the immediate term not to antagonise the rest of Asia at a time of worsening security concerns. If the conditions permitted, I do think that she would like to go to Yasukuni Tadashi Anno, politics professor “China would object strongly, of course, and South Korea would not be happy as well, but I think that nations in Southeast Asia would also express their displeasure,” Anno said. Takaichi is currently riding high in the polls and therefore has no need to whip up support from conservatives and nationalists, according to Anno. “But if the conditions permitted, I do think that she would like to go to Yasukuni,” he said. “And I am sure that the right-wing of the party will want her to, but she probably does not need to because she has already established her reputation as a strong conservative, meaning that she is less vulnerable to the right.” Go Ito, a professor of politics at Tokyo’s Meiji University, agreed that Takaichi would like to be able to go to Yasukuni, but said she would probably rein in that instinct. “Tamogami can say anything that he wants, but Takaichi has the responsibility of being the prime minister and having to do what is in the best interests of the nation,” he said. Ito said Tamogami had a “very good reputation” as an officer in the Japan Air Self-Defence Force, “but his behaviour since he was fired has been very different”. Tamogami, who is on the far-right of Japan’s political spectrum, has called for the country to have nuclear weapons, aircraft carriers, cruise missiles and long-range bomber aircraft. He has protested against Chinese claims to disputed, Japanese-held islands in the East China Sea and insists wartime “comfort women” were well-paid prostitutes. He previously ran to become governor of Tokyo and a member of the House of Representatives, but lost badly in both campaigns. He was also charged in 2016 with violations of campaign finance laws. In last year’s gubernatorial race, he garnered less support than in his first run a decade earlier. “Takaichi has to achieve a delicate balance between not annoying Japan’s neighbours and partners and keeping the right-wing of the LDP happy,” Ito said. “But she has already taken a number of steps – such as promising to raise the defence budget and take a firmer line with foreign nationals – that she does not have to worry about the right at the moment.”

Yasukuni litmus test looms for Japan’s new PM Takaichi

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}As pressure mounts on Takaichi to visit Yasukuni as leader, analysts warn such a move could embolden the far-right and strain regional ties

As pressure mounts on Takaichi to visit Yasukuni as leader, analysts warn such a move could embolden the far-right and strain regional ties