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The article discusses controversy regarding the design and construction of the Olympic stadium designed by Architect Zaha Hadid for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. Topics addressed include the relationship between Olympic stadiums and national pride and identities, as well as considerations of the stadium's size and budget.

The article reports that, at a time of rising political tensions, heightened by a growing nationalism, China and Japan are more intertwined economically than they have ever been. The ties offer a counterpoint to rapidly deteriorating diplomatic relations, which reached another low point when Japan's Prime Minister visited the Yasukuni Shrine, the nationalist memorial to Japan's war dead, and China immediately called off high-level talks. Tensions will likely keep rising with Asia's transformation: China, which had lost its historical role as the region's economic and political lead to Japan in the last century and a half, is hungry to reclaim it. China's economic ascension has been so fast that Japan must now contemplate a true rivalry.

The article discusses the plans of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to revise the country's Constitution allowing a full-fledged military and to keep improve its economy rather than pursuing a nationalist agenda after his election victory on July 21, 2013 for the upper house of the Parliament.

Li Ying's ''Yasukuni'' begins with a visit to the workshop of Naoji Kariya, a 90-year-old swordsmith with a handsome, finely etched face and powerful, graceful hands. Mr. Li, a Chinese-born filmmaker who has lived in Japan for much of the past 20 years, intersperses visits with Mr. Kariya throughout this long, engrossing documentary; the swords this venerable craftsman makes are beautiful, and the skill and tradition that go into their manufacture are inspiring. But Mr. Kariya and his blades are also symbols of a complicated, contentious and often horrific history. Already controversial in Japan, the film explores that country's legacy of militaristic nationalism, illuminating both the noble customs and the brutality entwined at its heart. ''Yasukuni'' refers to a Tokyo shrine, built in 1869 and consecrated to the memory of soldiers who have died in Japan's wars. Their souls are said to reside within the gates of this Shinto shrine. Its name means peaceful country, though its place in Japanese consciousness suggests the opposite. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Japan's new prime minister, Taro Aso, is well known -- and not fondly remembered -- by Japan's neighbors as a pugnacious nationalist. As foreign minister from 2005 to 2007, Mr. Aso soured relations with China and South Korea and raised tensions throughout the region, praising the achievements of prewar Japanese colonialism, justifying wartime atrocities and portraying China as a dangerous military threat. Now, the power brokers in the long-governing Liberal Democratic Party have made him Japan's fourth prime minister in just two years and rebranded Mr. Aso as a ''pragmatist.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Examines the mood in Japan as the country prepares to send ground forces to Iraq. View that the death of a soldier would be a pivotal point in Japan's postwar history; Delays in deployment because of mounting violence in Iraq; How Japan is haunted by the legacy and trauma of World War II; Role of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's government in passing a law that allows Japan's military to send troops to Iraq; Topic of the military nationalism in Japan that led up to World War II.

Reports on nationalistic fervor among North Koreans that prevented the rush to choose South Korean or Japanese nationality that many predicted.