Global understanding does not come cheaply. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe¡¯s government has budgeted ?70 billion ¡ª yes, that¡¯s more than $500 million ¡ª to help get the word out about Japan and ensure that China and South Korea aren¡¯t the only ones controlling the narrative.

This lavishly funded PR program more than triples the strategic communications budget over last year¡¯s ?20 billion, essentially an admission that Japan has been losing the international war of words ¡ª and thus global support for its positions ¡ª during Abe¡¯s tenure. Given that Seoul and Beijing have been playing hardball in getting their sides of the story out, Tokyo is responding in kind.

Part of this gold-plated approach to global understanding involves conveying government positions on wartime history and overlapping territorial claims. A portion will be allocated to improving the government¡¯s ability to analyze and respond to developments in global opinion and making sure Japan¡¯s message gets across. Another slab is earmarked for supporting researchers and promoting Japanese studies at universities and think tanks; Columbia, Georgetown and Massachusetts Institute of Technology are getting $5 million each, no strings attached. Such endowments are the right way to go rather than doling out grants to Japan-friendly academics, because doing the latter will only provoke criticism about what criteria are applied to judge scholars¡¯ amenability. This would risk generating a backlash like the one China is facing with its 80 Confucius Institutes in the United States. There is also a risk that using the PR campaign to promote Abe¡¯s revisionist views will backfire, focusing attention on the worst chapters of modern Japan¡¯s history.