Japan's relations with China and South Korea are in tatters, there has been no progress on dealing with North Korea's nuclear weapons program, strains with Washington persist, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks are at an impasse, whaling got harpooned and hopes for a deal with Russia on the northern territories seem to have evaporated in Crimea. There are also growing concerns that "Abenomics" is unsustainable as there has been little progress on structural reforms, employers did little to boost wages and business sentiments have tanked. Moreover, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is showing signs of internal dissension over a range of issues from Abenomics to security and national energy policy, and has festering problems with coalition partner New Komeito. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe complains that U.S. President Barack Obama doesn't know who his friends are and that he should be getting more credit for making progress on security issues Washington has long lobbied for. Mr. President, welcome to "Abe Land."

But relax — don't get too worked up by a little bad news, this is not "Abegeddon." A sip of Team Abe's Kool-Aid puts all this fretting in perspective. Readers interested in getting a relentlessly upbeat version of onward and upward Japan under Abe should consult the We Are Tomodachi section of the government's website (www.japan.kantei.go.jp/letters)

This alternate reality reveals how Abe's spin doctors are trying to shape perceptions, although it is so endlessly chirpy that it grates like an advertising jingle on an endless loop. Really, is this the best these pitchmen can do? In Abe Land, we read that Abenomics is progressing, "making the impossible possible." Success, "depends on our will and our courage to set out to sea and sail without hesitation through the rough waves of the megacompetition encompassing the globe." Children of Fukushima's nuclear refugees will be welcome guests at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics. Cherry blossom festivals abound. We see Abe hobnobbing with world leaders, although Vladmir Putin of Russia, who he has met five times, is conspicuously missing from the photo lineup. We also see Abe inspecting Tohoku, meeting staff from the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear reactor, riding a tractor and visiting disaster shelters, showing he is a hands-on leader in his immaculate boilersuit. We learn he is drilling through the "Bedrock of Vested Interests," countering media accounts that belittle his half-measures, advocacy for the nuclear industry and pro-business policies that leave some 80 percent of people feeling no benefits from Abenomics.