Reconciliation between Japan and its neighbors remains in limbo because issues of war memory and apology have not been resolved. Japan's shared history with Asia shapes and amplifies ongoing controversies ranging from territorial disputes to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated Yasukuni Shrine visits.
In 2005 former German Prime Minister Helmud Schmidt visited Tokyo and reminded his hosts that Japan has no friends in Asia because it has failed to assume the burdens of history. Its neighbors have witnessed sustained efforts by some Japanese to gloss over the darker chapters of their shared history, generating disputes that impede reconciliation.
Japan has dug itself a deep diplomatic hole by denying, minimizing, shifting blame and justifying its atrocities in Asia. It is only since the 1990s that the government has begun the process of healing these rifts over history by revising textbooks, issuing apologies and making some reparations to former sex slaves. However, a conservative backlash aimed at sustaining a vindicating and valorizing narrative overshadows and undermines these reconciliation efforts.