Japan's increasingly powerful rightwing has gone to some strange lengths to condemn Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's recent admirable efforts to improve relations with North Korea.
Koizumi was accused of kowtowing to North Korean blackmail by going to Pyongyang to gain freedom for the eight family members of the five abductees sent to Japan in October 2002. From the beginning, though, it was clear that Pyongyang had no objection to the family members going to Japan.
Its only objection was to the way Tokyo had reneged on Koizumi's earlier promise to allow a return visit to North Korea of the five repatriated abductees. Koizumi's dramatic Pyongyang visit last month was in effect a bid to make up for breaking this promise.