A more assertive extremist fringe is believed behind the trend.

The country's estimated 10,000 ultra-rightists, who espouse hard-line stances in territorial disputes with Japan's neighbors and a rose-tinted view of Tokyo's past militarism, have become increasingly violent in recent years, the National Police Agency said in its annual report last year.

At the same time, national pride is in fashion again. The government has passed a law requiring patriotic education, pushed for a revision of the pacifist constitution and upgraded the status of the Defense Agency.

The government is also feeling freer about promoting its conservative agenda through the media.

In October, Communications Minister Yoshihide Suga took the unusual step of ordering public broadcaster NHK to increase its coverage of North Korea's abductions of Japanese nationals through its international shortwave radio service. NHK, however, insists that it has not changed its editorial policy to please the government.

Growing restrictions on the media in Japan have engendered concern overseas.

The Worldwide Press Freedom Index for 2006 released by Reporters Without Borders showed Japan plunging to 51st place in the 168-nation survey from 37th the previous year. The study cited "rising nationalism and the system of exclusive press clubs" - institutionalized insider relationships between reporters and the government offices as well as the powerful - as threats to democracy.

The fire at Kato's home in northern Japan Aug. 15, shortly after then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to the Yasukuni war shrine, was the most chilling illustration of the trend.

Kato, a leading lawmaker from the ruling party, made several TV talk-show appearances criticizing the pilgrimage to a venue that attracts nationalist demonstrations.

Hours later, police say, Masahiro Horigome, of the extremist group Great Japanese Brotherhood, torched Kato's home in northern Japan while his 97-year-old mother was out for a walk. Horigome was found on the grounds bleeding from an attempt to disembowel himself in a ritual "harakiri" suicide. He pleaded guilty in court on Thursday.

Yet the government response was muted. Koizumi at first blamed the media for publicizing his shrine visits, and took two weeks to condemned the attack on Kato's home.

While the rash of right-wing intimidation has not caused any deaths, fear of violence and intimidation have silenced many liberal-leaning journalists, lawmakers and academics, Kato said. "Many people are now keeping their months shut. Parliament is not an exception."

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