Japan Wants to Be a Peace-Builder, But Keeps Irritating Its Neighbors

"Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is promoting Japan as a postwar peace-builder as he tests the waters for a statement marking the 70th anniversary of its World War II defeat that risks irritating China and South Korea."

Japan has taken an “unwavering path” of peace since the war, Abe said in Cairo on Jan. 17 in his first overseas speech of a year set to be overshadowed by history.

In India, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida talked of Japan’s plans to contribute to global security. 

Abe has said he upholds previous statements of contrition on the 50th and 60th war anniversaries and will make a new declaration in August.

Shifting the focus to the postwar period may provoke anger from Asian neighbors just months after Abe held his first summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping and as the two nations restart maritime talks.

Read more: Territorial disputes and disagreements over Japan’s occupation of large parts of Asia in the first half of the 20th century have caused fractious ties with China and South Korea.