Why Japan is willing to test China
Surging popularity and a growing sense that attempts to placate Beijing are not working have emboldened Abe's party to push back
The 168 Japanese politicians who visited Yasukuni Shrine yesterday were likely emboldened by the surging popularity of the right-of-centre Liberal Democratic Party, and may have concluded that a policy of self-restraint with Japan's neighbours is not working.
As the politicians, including representatives of some of the smaller parties in the Diet, were paying their respects at the spring festival, the Chinese ambassador to Tokyo was summoned to the Foreign Ministry and received an official protest over eight Chinese maritime surveillance vessels entering territorial waters around the disputed Diaoyu, or Senkaku, islands.
Beijing disputes the sovereignty of the islands and said its vessels had been tasked with monitoring a flotilla of small ships reportedly carrying members of a Japanese nationalist group.
"I would say that the situation between Japan and China is deteriorating and that both side are incensed," said Jun Okumura, a political analyst with the Eurasia Group.
"And that does not only mean politicians on the right off the spectrum here are incensed," he said. "It is becoming more and more difficult for Japan to exercise self-restraint because, from a Japanese perspective, Beijing is escalating the situation."