Neoconservatism in Japan

As members of the post-war generation, they view themselves as free of responsibility or guilt for Japan's conquests and wartime history and Japanese war crimes. They view China as a country that harbors historical grievances for political gain, rather than accepting Japan's apologies. They express strong patriotic pride and stress Japan's international role. They view the North and South Korean-Japanese relationship as no longer particularly special, but rather desire to rebuild it as a "normal relationship"—one in which Japanese war guilt is no longer a factor in bilateral negotiations. Accordingly, they also support changing the Japanese constitution, especially Article 9 which is viewed as obsolete, so as to make progress towards "normalizing" Japan's status (that is to enable the country to re-arm to the level of most other countries).

The neoconservatives generally eschew traditional party-line factionalism, form alliances with lawmakers connected to defense, and create their own study committees. The bipartisan "Young Lawmaker's Group for Establishing Security in the New Century", founded in 2001, is the crux of the neoconservative group within the Japanese Diet. Note that the "Young" in the title is relative - being in their 40s and 50s, they are younger than the majority of powerful politicians who are in their 60s and 70s.

Early Neoconservatives embraced neoliberalism and rejected keynesianism. However this changed with Abenomics, which includes elements of both keynesianism and neoliberalism.

Neoconservatives

The neoconservatives are a group of "younger" politicians, in their 40s and 50s. Notable neoconservatives often include:

• Shigeru Ishiba, former Prime Minister of Japan, former Minister of Defense and major proponent of Japan's involvement in the US-initiated Iraq War
• Shinzo Abe, former Prime Minister of Japan, the successor of Junichiro Koizumi, an anti-North Korea hardliner
• Tōru Hashimoto, former Mayor of Osaka
• Takashi Kawamura, former Mayor of Nagoya
• Shintaro Ishihara, former governor of Tokyo, and co-author of the controversial essay, "The Japan That Can Say No"
• Seiji Maehara, a hardliner and former Minister for Foreign Affairs
• Shoichi Nakagawa, Chairman of the Policy Research Council of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
• Keizo Takemi, an LDP member and head of the "Young Lawmaker's Group"
• Ichita Yamamoto, head of the LDP team studying sanctions on North Korea