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Abe Confirmed as LDP Head in Japan

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party in Japan confirmed with vote on Tuesday that Shinzo Abe will take over the party leadership from the outgoing PM, Koizumi. Abe is a nationalist politician who has been outspoken in his support for revising Japan?s post-war constitution to enable Japan to better defend itself in a world where North Korea ? a former colonial possession of Japan ? has nuclear weapons capabilities and harbors an antagonistic attitude toward Tokyo. Current prime minister Junichiro Koizumi is set to retire next week, and the Diet, Japan?s parliament, will likely confirm Abe as Japan?s next prime minister.

Abe?s comments in July sparked a furor with neighbors, with him suggestion that Japan?s pacifist constitution needed to be revised in order to help Japan defend itself. Under the current constitution, Japan?s military capabilities are limited to self-defense weapons. If a United States ship was attacked in Japanese waters by, say, North Korea or China, Japan could not even come to the defense of its American ally.

Prime Minister Koizumi has rubbed the emotions of neighbor China raw with his visits to a shrine for the dead of Japan?s wars, a monument which honors both ordinary Japanese as well as convicted war criminals. Some U.S. politicians have called for Koizumi?s successor to abandon the trips to the controversial shrine, noting that the descriptions of Japan?s World War II actions makes it seem as if Japan was both a victim and a victor.