Sunday, November 16, 2014

Very Kind Of Them #30

Steve Miller and I had a conversation the other day about the Autumn Festival Yasukuni sampai. Here is the podcast. (Link)

Since Secretary-General of the National Security Secretariat Yachi Shotaro managed to eke out a handshake and 25 minute meeting for Prime Minister Abe Shinzo with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing, surrendering not a thing in the process (Link) including even a vague pledge not to visit Yasukuni, my thinking is that the odds are now 50-50, rather than 100%, that Mr. Miller and I will be doing a follow-up podcast in late December.

Why only 50-50? Because after indulging his hot-blooded youthfulness (Link) in calling a snap election, Abe will have no late December doldrums to roust either himself or the revisionist partisans out of. And because Abe Shinzo probably appreciates one can tease and cheat the leaders of China only so much -- that there comes a point where their self-control will break and they will do something rash and most likely exceedlingly unpleasant.

1 comment:

Brodie said...

What has always confused me, is that while China and the Koreas are upset over the Class-A's, why arn't they furious over the Class-B's enshrined there?

Also were any of the Class-A's indicted over crimes in Korea? or are they upset because they see it as respecting/diefying the Colonial Authority?