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CIAO DATE: 12/5/2006
A Japan That Can Say Yes: We Should Welcome the Nationalism of Prime Minister Abe
Gary J. Schmitt, Dan Blumenthal
October 2006
Abstract
The recent election of Shinzo Abe to the premiership of Japan has raised a host of issues about the direction in which Japan is headed. Conventional wisdom holds that Abe will lead the country on an increasingly nationalistic course, but Abe's nationalism is democratic, and one that should be welcomed by the United States.
The conventional wisdom is that the ascension of Japan’s Shinzo Abe to the prime minister’s post is bad news for Japan and, by extension, the United States. Abe is an ardent nationalist who, the thinking goes, will unleash the country’s lurking militarism, thus isolating Japan and, indirectly, Washington from the rest of Asia. But this misreads the nature of Abe’s nationalism and the positive effects it could have on Asia.