Much of the motivation for Abenomics, Japan’s bold gambit to breathe life into its economy, comes courtesy of Beijing. It was fear of a rising, more assertive China that led the Liberal Democratic party to turn to the jingoistic Shinzo Abe in the first place and convinced many Japanese to hold their nose and vote for him. It was the same conviction that persuaded Mr Abe himself that something had to be done to rid the country of 15 years of deflation and to build a prosperous country capable of defending its interests. For a while Mr Abe, a revisionist who thinks Japan has been unfairly singled out for criticism about wartime atrocities, concentrated on getting his economic plan up and running. Now, more than a year into a premiership likely to last at least until 2016, he is pushing his nationalist agenda more forcefully – with some worrying implications for Japanese democracy.