Japan PM

On the world front I've noticed some curious developments.

I have my own take on things, I amuse myself. One story that came out a few weeks ago is that Kim Jong Il, leader of South Korea, and the leader of Myanmar have decided to make nice. I guess they were enemies. Those two countries being enemies makes no sense, and one can certainly see why they would want to patch things up. They have a common enemy: everyone. So there was a meeting.

A very short time later, Abe, the PM of Japan visited the US. So to amuse myself, I picture Bush telling Abe, "They have a meeting. We have a meeting." Watch out.

THEN Abe goes over to China, "Hey, let's improve relations." (Not an exact quote)
I've been on this side of the world for a while. I was in school for a month in China. I know about the relations with China and Japan, and I can say honestly, that this 'let's patch things up' attitude seems right out of the blue.

It wasn't that long ago that Japan was playing the same old role of completely disregarding all opinions outside of their borders, engaging in controversial behaviors, like visiting shrines for war criminals, and maintaining their superior attitude on any issue raised by outsiders. There were bold statements made that there's not enough evidence to prove that Korean women were held captive and raped by soldiers. This is just one of many issues. China and Korea have beefs with them continually. Back and forth.It seems for the last year, there's always been something in the news. Someone made a speech, someone visited somewhere, there was a court ruling...all of it just Japan being superior, 'we don't care' Japan.

And them boom.
Hey let's make friends with China.

Here's what I think. I think they've got their eye on North Korea. When Kim Jong Il started in last year with this 'Go ahead, make my day.' stuff, Japan was jumping around like the kid in the crowd that wanted a rumble.

The latest news is that Abe wants to change the constitution to more accurately reflect their power in the world. Their constitution mandates peace for the country. As I understand it, they do not have attack rights. Abe wants to change this. On the news there was a story showing thousands of protesters in Japan that want to maintain their peaceful stand. One woman said in to the camera directly and succintly, "They want to change this so that they can kill people." Maybe there was a translation issue, Japanese aren't typically so direct. But I heard her Japanese sentence and it was very short. Her voice was strong and direct.

So, I think that all this is not passing news, and somehow these recent events are to shape world events to come.