As members of the post-war generation , they view themselves as free of responsibility or guilt for Japan 's conquests and wartime history and Japanese war crimes . They view China as a country that harbors historical grievances for political gain , rather than accepting Japan 's apologies . They express strong patriotic pride and stress Japan 's international role . They view the North and South Korean-Japanese relationship as no longer particularly special , but rather desire to rebuild it as a " normal relationship " &mdash; one in which Japanese war guilt is no longer a factor in bilateral negotiations . Accordingly , they also support changing the Japanese constitution , especially Article 9 which is viewed as obsolete , so as to make progress towards " normalizing " Japan 's status ( that is to enable the country to re-arm to the level of most other countries ) . The neoconservatives generally eschew traditional party-line factionalism , form alliances with lawmakers connected to defense , and create their own study committees . The bipartisan " Young Lawmaker 's Group for Establishing Security in the New Century " , founded in 2001 , is the crux of the neoconservative group within the Japanese Diet . Note that the " Young " in the title is relative - being in their 40s and 50s , they are younger than the majority of powerful politicians who are in their 60s and 70s
Japanese war crimes
Japanese war crimes
Neoconservatism in Japan