Public opinion matters for Abe's dream of changing Japan's Constitution, as any amendments would still have to be approved by a national referendum.
The initiative is supposed to be a stone to kill several birds, and it encourages workers to clock out early at least once a month in the hope of boosting consumption.
A Japanese government official told the Kyodo News on Saturday that the country plans to update its defense program guidelines five years earlier than initially planned. The guidelines are usually revised every 10 years.
If China can lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, it surely can find a way to keep its cities' air clean.
And given Trump's unpredictable foreign policy, it is difficult to say whether Abe's reconciliatory visit to Pearl Harbor will get the desired response from the incoming US administration.
Many issues in Japan's foreign policy are legacies of World War II. However, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has seemed determined to try and settle two of them in the last month of this year.
On Dec 26, Shinzo Abe will be the first Japanese prime minister to visit Pearl Harbor, on which Japan launched a sneak attack on Dec 7, 1941, dragging the United States into the war. He will not apologize for the attack during his visit, as it is intended to "console" its victims.
It came as no surprise that Your Name, the latest film by Japanese anime director Makoto Shinkai, which started its theatrical run in China on Friday, has been such a hit with Chinese audiences.
Japan likes to talk about the status quo. But the country itself is trying to shift the strategic balance of power in East Asia.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was the first foreign leader to meet with the US president-elect, and Japan's media excitedly seized on anything that could be regarded as a positive signal from the high-profile meeting on Thursday between Abe and incoming US President Donald Trump.
The unexpected victory of billionaire businessman Donald Trump in the US election has caused great anxiety in the country.
UNESCO's Intergovernmental Committee is expected to make the final decision later this month.
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