The Yasukuni Shrine is a site of contested nationalist politics in Japan and in neighbouring countries. Within Japan the status of the Shrine exists in a tension between public and private and religious and secular meanings. These tensions are given a specific focus in the context of the visits to the Shrine by Japanese Prime Ministers. The history of such visits is discussed and analysed, with particular attention given to the causes and consequences of the visits by Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro between 2001 and 2006. It is argued that the controversies over the visits in Japan and elsewhere are best understood in the context of 'revisionist nationalism' in Japan. The reactions and nationalist problematics of the PRC and Taiwan with regard to the Yasukuni Shrine are then elaborated and analysed.Keywords Nationalism . Revisionism-Koizumi . Sino Japanese relations . Taiwan . YasukuniThe Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo has come to play a highly symbolic role in domestic and international politics in East Asia. To understand why this is the case it is necessary to engage with both elite politics and the politics of changing nationalist movements in Japan and in neighbouring countries. The Yasukuni Shrine is open to multiple readings and interpretations and the inability to agree on a settled meaning of the Shrine ensures that high level political visits result in significant political controversy. Two issues in particular generate debate.
Nationalism and national self-assertion have been core values of the Chinese Communist Party throughout its history and also represent a key narrative of Chinese history in the 20th century, although the social bases from which the nationalism derives and the manner in which this nationalism is expressed have changed over time. From the 1990s onwards, the party-state's preferred discourse on nationalism has been couched in terms of patriotism, while a popular nationalism has emerged, which at times goes beyond and challenges that of the party-state. The implications of this are addressed in the present paper with regard to the PRC's relations with Taiwan and Japan and with regard to the debate on ideology and Asian Values. It is argued that rising popular nationalism increasingly challenges state autonomy in the first two areas, but tends to be supportive of the state with regard to the third.
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