Well, it looks like the national tension between Japan and China is not dying down. The tensions caused by the original textbook debate has maintained it's momentum in China and is being furthered by a dispute over gas drilling rights between the two countries.
According to this excellent analysis in the San Francisco Chronicle:
— the bigger issue here may be China, in part, flexing its newfound economic muscle in the region. Also according to the article, China is ᡢecoming further emboldened because the communist nation is finding that Japan's traditional allies like the United States do not want to get involved in the China-Japan dispute and are only issuing travel advisories for it's own citizens traveling in China.
Also complicating matters is that the United States is pushing Japan to take a more active defensive role in the region as the U.S. plans to pull its 30,000 troops out of Okinawa and only leave a small contingent near Tokyo.
Are we seeing a shift in political-economic power in East Asia?
China does appear to be trying to make some diplomatic effort to dampen the anti-japanese rallies, as reported by the BBC:
China warns against Japan Rallies
As I said before, I'm interested in this crisis between Japan and its neighbors as far as it will effect Japan in the coming years— I hold NO OPINION on the issue proper, just the effects it will leave in it's wake.
Framed in those terms, the question is: what role does Japan's younger generation have to look forward to for their own country of Japan and so their self-identity, if there is a drastic shift in political-economic power towards China in the coming decades?
How will the next generation of Japanese deal with those outside Asia seeing China as a near-hegemonic force in Asia, while China continues a policy of suppression of Japanese interest based upon issues from the past?
I'm guessing that we may well see hints to the possible future dynamics in East Asia based upon whether or not the friction between China and Japan calms down or builds to a fever pitch in the coming days.
Image copyright Getty Images.
