Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine brought swift condemnation from China and South Korea.  But the indignation from its neighbors may actually fuel the nationalist conservative domestic agenda that Abe has craved.

Abe went to Yasukuni yesterday, even though the shrine to Japan’s war dead also venerates Class-A war criminals such as Hideki Tojo, Abe’s World War II predecessor.  It was the first visit by a sitting Prime Minister since 2006.  China responded by instantly calling the Japanese Ambassador in to be berated.  Beijing says the situation is “intolerable”.

China already cranked up the heat last month by claiming an unprecedented “air defense zone” off its east coast that includes the Senkaku Islands, which have been under Japanese control for more than a century.  Beijing says they’re China’s.

Prime Minister Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping are close in age and each about a year into their terms in office.  Now, it’s doubtful they’ll ever discuss any similarities to bring them together.

“Xi will almost certainly not meet with Abe as long as Abe is prime minister,” said Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Taylor Fravel, who saysthe region might suffer as a result.  “Few substantive agreements will be reached, especially those sorely needed for crisis management.”

Abe has long spoke of his desire to change the constitution to get rid of the pacifist “Article 9” which outlaws war as a means to settle international disputes.  He’s also been an advocate of teaching pride in Japan’s wartime past in public schools.  An angry China with an expanding territorial claims and a growing military budget gives Abe’s the external foe he needs to point to and show why his nationalist goals are “necessary”.  Some believe these are his first concrete steps to steer Japan away from its post-war pacifist course.

“The past year has given Mr. Abe confidence to start flying his own colors,” said Koji Murata, president of Doshisha University in Kyoto.  “He is signaling to his supporters that he is a politician who will fight for his convictions.”

But visiting Yasukuni also alienates South Korea, which responded with similar anger.  The Republic of Korea's Culture Minister Yoo Jin Ryong said Seoul was “furious” at the “deplorable visit.”  Another senior official who didn’t want to go on the record said it’s the “final blow to ongoing efforts to improve relations between South Korea and Japan.”

And Tokyo’s most-important ally is not thrilled.

“The United States is disappointed that Japan's leadership has taken an action that will exacerbate tensions with Japan's neighbors,” said the US Embassy in Tokyo on its website, in an unusual direct criticism of Japan's leader by its main ally.