What Mr. Abe really wants

The Economist:
"Mr Abe promises to focus on turning round an economy enduring its third recession in five years(…). He says he has learnt from his disastrous first term as prime minister (…). The question is whether Mr Abe can keep the government on-message. In picking his 19-member cabinet he has given reason to doubt that, in the long run, he even wants to.

Consider the following. Fourteen in the cabinet belong to the League for Going to Worship Together at Yasukuni. Thirteen support Nihon Kaigi, a nationalist think-tank that advocates a return to “traditional values” and rejects Japan’s “apology diplomacy” for its wartime misdeeds. Nine belong to a parliamentary association that wants the teaching of history in schools to give a better gloss to Japan’s militarist era. They deny most of Japan’s wartime atrocities."

Back to the Future - The Economist