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TOKYO — Japan's nationalists were out in force at a controversial war shrine on Friday to mark the anniversary of Tokyo's Second World War surrender, marching in military garb and shouting diatribes in support of fallen soldiers.
But one key player was missing: the prime minister.
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda stayed far from the crowded grounds of Yasukuni Shrine on Friday, symbolizing the near total disappearance of the nationalist agenda of his predecessors since he took office 11 months ago.
Conservative causes such as amending the pacifist constitution, teaching patriotism in the schools and raising Japan's international profile have moved quietly to the back burner under Mr. Fukuda.
“It's in hibernation, and it's been in hibernation for some time, and it's probably in decline,” Steven Reed, a political scientist at Chuo University in Tokyo, said of the nationalist agenda.
Mr. Fukuda's absence was resented by many at the shrine, which honours some 2.5-million Japanese war dead and which has also been vilified by critics – particularly in China and South Korea – as glorifying of Japan's militarist past.
“It's natural for the prime minister to come here. These people died for the country,” said Hisashi Fujimura, 76, at Yasukuni to pray for an uncle and cousin who died in the war. “Doesn't the U.S. president go to Arlington?”
Yasukuni, however, is no ordinary memorial.
Among those enshrined are the executed architects of Tokyo's bloody march through Asia in the 1930s and 1940s. The shrine was instrumental in stirring up militarist fervour during the war, and continues to support the view that Japan was pushed into aggression by the United States and Europe.
Junichiro Koizumi visited the shrine five times during his 2001-2006 term as prime minister, plunging ties with China to postwar lows. Mr.Fukuda's immediate predecessor, Shinzo Abe, was a firm supporter of the shrine but did not visit it last year for fear of upsetting a rapprochement with Beijing.
Both Mr. Koizumi and Mr. Abe were there on Friday, along with three cabinet ministers. Instead of Yasukuni, Mr. Fukuda went to the secular Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery and attended a memorial service in Tokyo.
While Mr. Fukuda, considered a “dove” among the Japanese elite, apparently has personal reasons for avoiding Yasukuni, there are solid political reasons for his rollback of nationalist policies.
A leading reason is the growth of the importance of China as a trading partner. Japan is clearly loath to jeopardize growing economic links with its gargantuan neighbour at a time that the Chinese economy is growing by leaps and bounds.
Another reason is closer to home: Nationalist politics seldom wins votes in Japan.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party typically pushes through nationalist policies after it has won an election and feels secure in power, said Jeffrey Kingston, a political specialist at Temple University in Tokyo.
Mr. Abe, who inherited a powerful LDP grip on parliament left over from 2005 elections, pushed those policies hard. He re-established “patriotic” education in public schools, upgraded the Defence Agency to full ministry status, and ignited a firestorm by appearing to back away from a previous government apology for kidnapping thousands of women during the war as sex slaves for troops.
But as Mr. Abe's rule fell apart after only a year, the LDP has turned to economic issues closer to the hearts of voters.
“The LDP realized that focusing on ideological issues is not a vote-winner. They saw what happened to Abe,” Mr. Kingston said. “All these bread-and-butter issues are what they have to focus on.”
Still, nationalist sentiments are far from dead in Japan, and were well in evidence at Yasukuni on Friday.
Thousands thronged the sprawling grounds, bowing their heads in silence at noon to mark Emperor Hirohito's announcement on Aug. 15, 1945, that Japan had lost the war. Right-wing extremists shouted from trucks, while would-be soldiers strutted around in military uniforms.
Many at the shrine said they wanted only to pay respects to fallen soldiers and had no wish for a return to militarism, though they harshly criticized China and South Korea for bad-mouthing the shrine.
There was also firm support for a rosy view of Japan's conquest of wide swaths of Asia.
“If Japan hadn't taken control of other countries in Asia, then those countries would be European colonies today,” said Koichi Watanabe, 61, whose father fought in the war but survived. “It's no joke.”
