Japanese govt adopts provocative foreign policies

NEW DELHI - A leading Indian periodical said on Thursday that the Japanese government has adopted provocative foreign policy and right-wing domestic policy since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came to power in 2012.

In an article titled "Provocative Act," the Chennai-based Frontline magazine said in its latest issue that while trying to attract international limelight, Abe has been trying to make dramatic changes in the country's domestic and foreign policies.

"The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) under his leadership now wants the 'pacifist' Japanese Constitution to be overhauled and replaced by one that will allow the Japanese military to engage in activities that are expressly prohibited by the 1950 Constitution," said the article written by journalist John Cherian.

The ruling party removed from its manifesto for the 2014 local elections a long-standing pledge that Japan "will never wage a war, " said the article.

"Domestically, the LDP government has veered sharply to the right. This trend came into sharp focus when the prime minister decided to visit at the end of the year Yasukuni shrine, which enshrines 2.5 million dead Japanese soldiers as well as 12 convicted Class A war criminals from the Second World War," it said, adding that the shrine has been traditionally regarded as a symbol of Japanese militarism.

Abe has always sought to downplay the magnitude of Japanese war crimes and whitewash the role of Japanese imperialism in the first half of the 20th century. He has denied that the Japanese Army forced women into sexual servitude, said the article.