Tokyoid at Japundit challenges the perception that Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara is a major source of Japan's nationalist problem with the claim that the blame lies with Foreign Minister Taro Aso:

“There are those who view Tokyo Governor Ishihara as the embodiment of resurgent Japanese nationalism. They are wrong. Ishihara, for all his buffoon-like outbursts, is the political equivalent of the bitter man sat at the bar, best years behind him, putting the world to rights to anyone unfortunate to be within hearing distance with tirades against whatever group happens to cross his mind at that particular moment…There are those who have sought to downplay the significance of Aso's recent pronouncements on supposed Japanese racial purity, but this story puts those into a completely different shade when you consider his own corporate connections to actual complicity in slavery during war time.”