At the luncheon following their Camp David tete-a-tete last month, prime minister Junichiro Koizumi toasted his hostess Laura Bush, saying he thought it was her highly personal and moving speech at the Republican National Convention in Los Angeles in August, 2000 that won her husband the US presidential election.
According to those in the room, President George W. Bush was personally touched by Koizumi's gallant remarks, cementing his initial positive impression of Japan's sometimes quirky prime minister.
It was a fitting capstone to a remarkably successful summit for both Tokyo and Washington. The meeting established a personal rapport between Koizumi and the president that may prove extremely useful in the months ahead as Japan wrestles with economic restructuring, the US faces a rising trade deficit amidst a slowing global economy and the US-Japan security relationship comes under new strain in the wake of yet-another Okinawa rape involving US servicemen.
Koizumi's deft performance, both during his personal time with Bush and in the press conference that followed, and the obvious care his advisers had taken in briefing him for the meeting reassured wary Bush administration officials of Koizumi's political skills and his government's commitment to reform. The prime minister's promise not to move forward on the Kyoto Protocol without the US was an unexpected political homage for president Bush, who has been on the defensive at home and abroad for his skepticism about the seriousness of global warming. Finally, the security and economic dialogues launched at the summit promise to be more productive than many US officials initially thought possible.
Risk averse
Nevertheless, the Bush administration remains cautious about Koizumi. "He has never been a risk-taking politician," warned one official. "Will he start now? He could still go up in flames." The personal chemistry between the prime minister and the president, and the new Camp David bilateral initiatives are a necessary precursor to better ties between the world's two largest economies, but they are not sufficient to necessarily insure the "special relationship" that both Tokyo and Washington seek.
"Given Japan's political realities," said a senior administration official, "Koizumi is our best chance for a reformer. So we didn't want to do anything that might be seen in Japan as undercutting him, like Clinton did to Hosokawa -- in February, 1993 Clinton publicly criticized then prime minister Hosokawa while he stood next to the president at a White House press conference."
To insure a smooth first meeting, Bush stifled his usually visible frustration with people who talk too much in his presence. In fact, say aides, he seemed genuinely bemused by the fact that Koizumi's monologue monopolized their time together. The prime minister's penchant for blurting out English phrases such as "bold and flexible" and "no pain, no gain" during his animated description of his economic reform plans and his advocacy of smaller government and tax cuts were music to the conservative president's ears.
Its no surprise, said one White House adviser, that Bush seems to get along best with free market reformers such as Mexican president Vicente Fox and Koizumi. "One reason for this summit's success is ideological," he noted.
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