Abe has not resiled .. from the aggressive nationalist policies that he promoted during the election campaign. He has already indicated that closer ties with the US will be central to his government’s policies and again declared on Wednesday that he would protect “the people’s lives, Japanese territory and its beautiful seas.”
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Abe will extend these policies and also pursue his longstanding ambition to modify Japan’s post-war constitution, which currently impedes the formation of military alliances and joint military action. Japan has a large military, known as the Self Defence Forces, that has already been deployed to support the US-led occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq.
As education minister, Abe has installed Hakubun Shimomura, who shares Abe’s views that Japan’s school history books have to be rewritten to remove references to the horrific war crimes carried out by the Japanese military in the 1930s and 1940s. Public Security Commission chairman Keiji Furuyu and administrative reform minister Tomomi Inada are also known for right wing nationalist outlooks.
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Abe will extend these policies and also pursue his longstanding ambition to modify Japan’s post-war constitution, which currently impedes the formation of military alliances and joint military action. Japan has a large military, known as the Self Defence Forces, that has already been deployed to support the US-led occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq.
As education minister, Abe has installed Hakubun Shimomura, who shares Abe’s views that Japan’s school history books have to be rewritten to remove references to the horrific war crimes carried out by the Japanese military in the 1930s and 1940s. Public Security Commission chairman Keiji Furuyu and administrative reform minister Tomomi Inada are also known for right wing nationalist outlooks.
