Ex-UK envoy nudges Abe over history

A former British ambassador to Japan expressed in an article his concerns that Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party's leaders could threaten its long-term national interests through policies that could lead to a more autocratic and nationalist regime, a local newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Hugh Cortazzi, British ambassador to Japan from 1980 to 1984, wrote in Japan Times, an independent English-language newspaper, that the Abe administration is putting more pressure on media to support his policies.

"NHK, which should be independent, has become a government mouthpiece. The kisha club (press club) system, which is used to feed government information to the media, has been used to promote self-censorship by the implied threat of being excluded from access. A vendetta against Asahi Shimbun seems to have been at least partly successful," Cartazzi said.