As Chapter 4 has shown, by the early 1990s Japan was in the process of redefining its official historical narrative in a more penitent direction. International pressures were pushing Japan toward greater contrition. Japanese public opinion had shifted significantly toward recognizing the suffering the empire had inflicted on other Asian countries. Powerful interest groups, in particular the business community, were pushing for a more conciliatory stance, and Japanese political leaders – even very conservative ones like Nakasone – were progressively adopting a more contrite rhetoric when speaking about the past. Within a decade, however, Japan was embroiled in a diplomatic crisis over history that was far more severe and more protracted than anything it had experienced before. Chinese and Korean resentment over aspects of the Japanese official narrative – in particular Prime Minister Koizumi's trips to the Yasukuni and the Ministry of Education's approval for the adoption of revisionist textbooks – boiled over into sometimes violent street demonstrations and mass letter-writing campaigns. High-level diplomatic contacts between Japan and its two main Asian neighbors – China and South Korea – were severely disrupted for nearly five years, and disputes that previously had been manageable – in particular the territorial disputes with China over the Senkaku/Diaoyutai islands and with Korea over the Dokdo/Takeshima islands – intensified to an alarming and potentially dangerous degree.

While a complete breakdown in relations was avoided, the 2001–2007 war over history was an unusually turbulent and politically costly one. The bright hopes for building stronger regional structures that had characterized regional dialogue in the early 1990s were drowned out in a rising tide of nationalist recrimination. Sharply growing threat perceptions between the major Northeast Asian powers helped to fuel a significant military buildup, and new flashpoints for conflict between Japan and its neighbors emerged in the shape of an array of territorial disputes that would continue to fester well after the 2001–2007 diplomatic crisis was over.