(抜粋)The affair of the noisily unapologetic general, whose views echo those of many prominent nationalists in Japan, is turning into a substantial political liability for Prime Minister Taro Aso, who must call a general election in less than a year.
Before he became prime minister in September, Aso, 68, an elder in the ruling party, had made a series of statements that suggested his nationalist leanings. He upset the governments of North and South Korea by praising his country's 35-year colonial occupation of their peninsula, saying Japan did many good things there.
As foreign minister in 2006, Aso annoyed China by suggesting that Japan's emperor should visit Yasukuni, the shrine in Tokyo where convicted war criminals are honored along with 2 1/2 million war dead.