If you think Japan's right wing is inevitably pro-American then think again. Over policy on Iraq and the Middle East, the gap between the conservative rightwingers, who support the United States, and their ideological kin on the extreme right is about as wide as it can get.
I have before me a book recently published by some extreme rightists. The cover says "Struggle On (Ganbare), Saddam Hussein." It carries a photo of the former Iraqi leader flashing a sword, samurai-style.
Splashed alongside is the book title "Kichiku Eibei," literally "Devil Animals, England and America," the slogan Japan's wartime militarists once used to show their contempt for the West. Al-Qaeda would be proud to have a slogan like that.