Abe plays Yasukuni card for Obama’s visit

Shinzo Abe’s ritual offering to the Yasukuni Shrine where the spirits of Japan’s war dead are said to reside, is yet another example of the Prime Minister’s determination to keep his country at the top of the United States’ East Asian agenda.

Deliberately designed to coincide with a visit from US President Barack Obama this week, the gesture brought the usual protests from South Korea and China, as among the spiritual inhabitants of Yasukuni are leaders guilty of committing war crimes against both nations.

While Abe did not actually visit the shrine on this occasion, a number of other Parliamentarians, including his Minister for Internal Affairs, Yoshitaka Shindo, paid ritual homage, something that Washington disapproves of, but is powerless to stop.

Japan has always ignored Chinese and South Korean protests, but on this occasion Beijing went a step further by seizing a Japanese merchant vessel, claiming its owner, Mitsui OSK Lines, still owes compensation dating back to World War II.

However, most observers believe the seizure will come to nothing as the Chinese Government cannot afford to endanger the business that might be lost from Japanese firms should the incident escalate into a full-blown crisis.

By upping the ante over Yasukuni visits China and South Korea are playing straight into Abe’s hands, demonstrating their powerlessness to influence Tokyo’s actions.

Far better to have accepted the visits as just a nation paying tribute to its war dead, as they do themselves, while ensuring the actual atrocities are never forgotten.

As it is Abe will ensure he has Obama’s full attention when he raises the issues of greatest concern for his country including East Asian regional security and especially Japan’s continuing row with China over the Senkaku Islands, which Beijing claims as the Diaoyu.