Editorial: Risky Nationalism in Japan

On Thursday, one year after coming to power, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Yasukuni, the controversial Shinto shrine that honors Japan's war dead, including war criminals from World War II. China and South Korea swiftly criticized the move, as did the United States. Mr. Abe's visit will worsen Japan's already tense relations with China and South Korea, which see the shrine as a symbol of imperial Japan's wars of aggression and colonialism. The United States Embassy said America was "disappointed that Japan's leadership has taken an action that will exacerbate tensions with Japan's neighbors."

The question is why Mr. Abe decided to visit Yasukuni now. It had been seven years since a Japanese prime minister visited the shrine, a recognition at the highest levels that the site is symbolically repugnant to China and South Korea and that such a visit is detrimental to relations with them. Japan's relations with those two nations are worse now than during the mid-2000s. Both Chinese and South Korean leaders have refused to meet with Mr. Abe since he became prime minister in 2012 (his first stint as prime minister was 2006-7), in part because of issues over territory in the East China Sea and Korean comfort women, who were forced into sexual slavery by Japanese soldiers during World War II.

Paradoxically, it is Chinese and South Korean pressure on these fronts that has allowed Mr. Abe to think a visit to Yasukuni is a good idea. China's belligerent moves in the past year over Japanese-administered islets has convinced the Japanese public that there is a Chinese military threat. This issue has given Mr. Abe cover to ignore all the signals from China and to pursue his goal of transforming the Japanese military from one that is strictly for territorial defense to one that can go to war anywhere. The visit to Yasukuni is part of that agenda.

South Korea's continuing and sharp criticism of Japan's grudging stance on the comfort women issue and the refusal by President Park Geun-hye to meet Mr. Abe to discuss the issue have sown distrust of South Korea among Japanese citizens, nearly half of whom, polls say, also see South Korea as a military threat. Such views among voters have effectively given Mr. Abe license to act without regard to the reactions in Beijing and Seoul.

The three major national newspapers — Yomiuri, Asahi and Mainichi — have been editorializing against a prime ministerial visit to Yasukuni, especially in the year since Mr. Abe took office. And more important for Mr. Abe and his nationalist supporters, Emperor Akihito has refused to visit Yasukuni, as did Emperor Hirohito before him.

Mr. Abe's ultimate goal is to rewrite Japan's pacifist Constitution, written by Americans during the postwar occupation, which restricts the right to go to war. Here, too, Emperor Akihito disapproves, though he has no political power under the Constitution. A few days before Mr. Abe visited Yasukuni, the emperor, in comments marking his 80th birthday, expressed his "deep appreciation" toward those who wrote the post-1945 constitution in order to preserve the "precious values of peace and democracy."

So, if history is the problem, Chinese and South Korean leaders will find allies in Tokyo, and they should meet Mr. Abe to confront, to negotiate and to resolve these issues. Their refusal to meet will only give Mr. Abe license to do what he wants. Japan's military adventures are only possible with American support; the United States needs to make it clear that Mr. Abe's agenda is not in the region's interest. Surely what is needed in Asia is trust among states, and his actions undermine that trust.

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