The contemporary culture wars that have erupted over Japanese identity and history are undermining the country's national interests and damaging its reputation.
However, as rightwing extremists again try to mount a takeover by seeking to rehabilitate Japan's history of aggression and colonial rule in Asia in defiance of mainstream domestic opinion, they are also attacking Japan's open society by muzzling the media, rolling back freedom of information, gutting transparency and boosting patriotic education.
The Dr. Feelgoods of Japanese history are feeling confident under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's sponsorship. Indeed, a majority of his Cabinet hail from a parliamentary revisionist-history association and sense a great opportunity to impose a degrading version of Japan's wartime past that insults countless Asian victims.