While Japan's government lobbies hard to get a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, its Prime Minister regularly flouts Asian opinion by paying his respects to war criminals at the Yasukuni Shrine. Apart from the immorality of such public behavior (imagine a German chancellor paying his respects at Goebbels' grave!), the fact that both China and the US have veto power at the UN suggests that it is stupid even from the standpoint of Realpolitik .