"Japan has a snake in her bosom. That snake is namely flatterers. What led Japan to defeat is neither army nor government, but the snake in Japan's bosom, the flatterers."
— Former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, "The Making of the New Japan" (translated by Lesley Connors)
When Prime Minister Shinzo Abe travels to Washington this week to meet U.S. President Donald Trump, it will take place in a very different atmosphere than the friendly, but hastily arranged, chat between Abe and the president-elect in November, just after he shocked Japan's leadership — and the world — by winning the election.