Japan's right-wing bravado

Even as the Japanese economy falters, some politicians and lawmakers in the country are more interested in stirring up nationalism than addressing people's real concerns.

Addressing a Lower House audit committee on Monday, Shintaro Ishihara, the governor of Tokyo, and Yoshitaka Nakayama, the mayor of Ishigaki, sought to whip up dangerous passions with the fiction that the people of Ishigaki, Okinawa, would be at risk as China wanted to build a military base on the Diaoyu Islands.

The breakdown of family and community ties and the decline of jobs for life in the world's third-biggest economy have left the country groping for new certainties and many people are becoming attracted to a dangerous nationalism.

And the growing stridency of Japanese nationalists is drowning out moderate voices. There are academics, journalists and members of parliament in Japan who have stopped commenting in public because of threats, including receiving bullets in the mail.

Right-wing lawmakers and politicians have called on the government to remove Japan's Ambassador to China Uichiro Niwa after he warned that Ishihara's plan to "purchase" China's Diaoyu Islands could spark an "extremely grave crisis". The Japanese government was quick to appease them and rebuked and distanced itself from Niwa by calling his words "personal opinions" that did not represent its position.

But by insisting on playing the nationalist card, Japan's conservative lawmakers and right-wing politicians are playing with fire.

Nationalism, like racism or ethnocentrism, can be explosively dangerous. It plays on feelings of hatred.

And while nationalist bravado may shore up public support for the government in the short term, the truth cannot be changed.

Yasuchika Hasegawa, president of Takeda Chemicals, summed up Japan's sense of crisis when he said: "We need a new vision or we face the decline of our nation."

Japan's insecurity at its reduced status in the world has been hammered home time and time again recently. But the rise of aggressive nationalism will only make it harder to resolve disputes with its neighbors.

The dangerous spiral of nationalism in Japan and other parts of Asia has hardened Chinese people's resolve to defend their territory.

Japan should carefully consider the way it is pushing the envelop with its antics concerning the Diaoyu Islands and refrain from inflammatory words and deeds.