It is only 18 years old, and its name is innocuous-Nippon Kaigi simply means "Japan Conference". Yet as one of Japan's most powerful lobby groups it has a shopping list of nationalist, indeed blatantly revisionist, causes: applaud Japan's wartime "liberation" of East Asia from Western colonialism; rebuild the armed forces; inculcate patriotism among students brainwashed by left-wing teachers; and revere the emperor as he was worshipped in the good old days before the war. Far from crediting America's post-war occupation for bringing democracy, Nippon Kaigi's supporters say that the occupation, and the liberal constitution that sprang from it, has emasculated Japan. Oddly, the group receives little attention from the media in Japan, despite its strong and growing influence at the heart of government.
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