This column has talked about Japan's right-wing swing before. The news is, it's swung so far that Japan's left is finally getting its act together.
For example, over the past year historians inside and outside Japan have joined retired politicians to demand that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe accurately portray Japan's role in World War II during the 70th anniversary commemorations last month. It didn't work, but nice try.
Or how about the decimated Democratic Party of Japan submitting a bill to the Diet that would ban racial discrimination (yes!), hate speech and related harassment? Sadly, the bill has no hope of passing, or of being enforceable even if it does (what with loopholes for "justifiable discrimination" and no criminal penalties). But, again, nice try.
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