Japan`s rightists gaining ground thanks to NK missile launch

Japan’s rightists are solidifying their position as Chinese aircraft entered airspace over the Senkaku Islands (called Diaoyu in China) for the first time Thursday after North Korea launched a long-range rocket just before Japan`s general elections on Sunday.

This has further raised the prospects of the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party winning a majority in the Diet`s lower house and party leader Shinzo Abe becoming prime minister again.

According to Japanese media reports Thursday, the party`s campaign of a stronger national defense is gaining momentum after the North’s launch. In a street speech in Nagasaki on Wednesday, Abe said that the launch was aimed at showing off the North`s capability of striking Japan. His comment was intended to highlight the ruling Democratic Party of Japan’s failure in diplomacy and national security while fueling a sense of crisis among the Japanese people.

Recent polls suggest that Abe`s party will likely win a landslide victory by taking about 280 seats, far more than the 241 needed for a majority. He also became Japan`s youngest prime minister since World War II after Pyongyang test-fired a long-range rocket in July 2006.

Shintaro Ishihara, former Tokyo governor and now the leader of the right-wing Japan Restoration Party, said in a statement after the launch that his party will push for a law on national security guarantee that will include Japan`s right to exercise collective self-defense and try to form a government that will adopt an independent constitution.

Japanese right-wing media are supporting Abe with editorials and articles backing collective self-defense and a stronger defense using the North’s rocket launch and Japan`s territorial dispute with China over the Senkaku Islands.

The leading daily Yomiuri Shimbun also reported that “national security” was rapidly emerging as a key election issue, quoting Abe as saying Japan’s alliance with the U.S. will end if Tokyo detects before Washington a missile launched by Pyongyang but lets it fly to the U.S. because Japan cannot exercise its collective self-defense right.

Another newspaper, the Tokyo Shimbun, said the Japanese military were attempting to reinforce themselves under the excuse of the North`s rocket launch. Immediately after the launch, Japan`s Defense Minister Satoshi Morimoto stressed the need to enhance his country’s missile defense system and intelligence-collecting capabilities.

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