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Japan should refrain from raising tensions with Korea
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its coalition partner Komeito won Sunday's upper house election by earning 71 of the 124 seats up for grabs. But his ruling bloc failed to obtain a two-thirds majority, dealing a setback to Abe who has vowed to revise Japan's postwar pacifist Constitution.
The nationalist leader emerged victorious. However, he needs to humbly accept his failure to garner a "supermajority." He should recognize that the majority of Japanese voters still oppose his ambition to make Japan a "normal" country that can wage war against other countries through a constitutional revision.
What's worrisome is that Abe has yet to give up his push for the revision despite the outcome of the vote. Instead, he has expressed his willingness to start discussing a potential amendment of the supreme charter in cooperation with pro-revision opposition lawmakers.
Abe said in an interview with TV Asahi, "Whether we can form a two-thirds majority depends on how discussions at the Diet will proceed." His remarks are enough to cause concerns not only among Japanese opposing the revision, but also Asian people who suffered untold pain under Japan's aggression and brutal colonial rule in the early part of the 20th century.
Abe's drive to rewrite the war-renouncing article of the supreme charter appears to have no chance of success for now. But it is a cause for concern because Abe's nationalist ambition is apparently aimed at tilting Japan toward the right and reviving its past "glory" of militarism.
Abe will never abandon his dream of turning Japan into a military power although Article 9 of the current Constitution renounces its right to wage war. He has repeatedly made a case for a constitutional change to formalize the legal status of the Self-Defense Forces. So we have to watch closely what he will do for that down the road.
Some observers predict Abe may introduce aggressive foreign policies to keep up momentum for his leadership in the face of hurdles to his bid for the constitutional amendment. If that is the case, he is likely to take a tougher stance against Korea over wartime forced labor issues. There are growing worries among South Koreans that the Abe administration will expand its export restrictions on high-tech materials needed for Korean firms to make semiconductors and panel displays.
One of Japan's further retaliatory measures could be to remove Korea from the "white list" of countries qualified for preferential trade treatment. If Japan press ahead with the removal, the trade dispute with Korea will jeopardize bilateral security cooperation. Seoul has even hinted at revoking a military information sharing pact with Tokyo.
We urge the Abe government to refrain from raising tensions with Korea further. It should accept President Moon Jae-in's call for a diplomatic resolution of the trade spat. Abe must realize that economic retaliation is in blatant violation of free trade rules and is self-destructive.
