Abe should avoid war shrine and focus on frayed ties

Being a politician in a media environment where every word and action is minutely scrutinised is challenging. It has been especially so for Japan's deputy prime minister and finance minister, Taro Aso, who is prone to off-the-cuff comments and has apologised for a number of gaffes since being appointed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe eight months ago. His latest controversial remark, that his country could learn from the manner in which German Nazis were able to quietly change the constitution, crossed a red line, though, and cannot be easily brushed aside.

It did nothing to advance efforts by Japanese officials to set up a summit between Abe and President Xi Jinping to mend badly frayed ties. In an effort to shift attention, government sources in Tokyo have since let it be known that Abe would probably stay away from the Yasukuni Shrine for Japan's war dead on next Thursday's anniversary of Japan's surrender. Avoiding giving further offence to China is at least a positive sign amid the worrying nationalistic fervour emanating from Japan and a drift to the right among its leaders.

Aso claims his comment last week in a speech to an ultra-conservative group in Tokyo was taken out of context, and that what he actually said was not in praise of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany, but that a calm environment was necessary for discussion of constitutional reform. To those concerned about the rise of nationalism in Japan, there are no shades of grey in what was said. For critics like China, the remark amounts to confirmation of militaristic intentions.

The victory of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party in recent upper house elections has given fresh impetus to calls to revise the US-drafted post-war constitution. They seek a higher profile for the military, which presently has a mandate to provide only self-defence. Japan's history of military aggression and colonisation, especially in China and on the Korean peninsula, are the reasons for the pacifist provisions. For Aso to raise Hitler's spectre, given that Japan and Nazi Germany were allies during the war, is to ignore the pain inflicted.

With tensions still high over disputed islands, Abe has to resist the temptation to offer prayers at the Yasukuni Shrine. With others in his cabinet he should be focusing on getting Japan's economy on track and mending frayed ties with trading partners, China being the biggest. Nationalist ways have to be set aside and the focus put on diplomacy.