On the eve of the July 2007 elections, in which the government of Abe Shinzo, the youngest Prime Minister in the history of Japan and the first to be born after World War II, faces the challenge of the ballot boxes, this monograph aims to provide a portrait of a country that is undertaking a revision of its history in order to resituate itself within the new imperatives of the international system. Japan has focused on developing a high economic profile, which has allowed it to attain a privileged position as the second world power. But, its low, postwar political profile, subjected to an imposed pacifism, has limited its capacity for foreign action in facing the security challenges existing in East Asia, the emergence of China and the unilateralism of the American superpower. This reality has pushed Japan to do a remodelling of its foreign and defence policy in order to be on a par with the United States, the European Union and China. But, while Abe has focused his efforts on foreign policy and defending reformation of the Constitution and the education system to bolster patriotism, what the Japanese people are most concerned about is the stagnation of salaries, the fragility of the pension system, tax increases and a progressive rise in social inequality.

ISSN: 1132-6107

60 pp.