Japan is suffering from a political paralysis that has led to a loss of influence in Asia, especially with regards China, as well as problems in its alliance with the US, on whom the Japanese depend for security.
“Japan has been marginalized,” a Japanese diplomat said, “and we did it to ourselves.”
A US academic who specializes in Japanese studies said: “Japan today is its own worst enemy. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans in Washington want to bypass Japan, but a ‘partner’ must want to participate.”
Japanese political scientist, Hirotaka Watanabe of the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies tried to be optimistic, writing: “Japan’s image in the world is not that bad.”
However, he added: “It is time for Japan to play a more active role in the alliance.”
Officers at US Forces Japan, the headquarters for the 36,600 US troops posted in Japan, declined to discuss how the political paralysis affected military readiness.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made a subtle reference to Tokyo’s paralysis after meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara in Honolulu last month, saying the US-Japan “core alliance” was “absolutely imperative.”
Perhaps the most vivid evidence of Japan’s impotent politics has been the parade of hapless prime ministers over the past 17 years following former prime minister Kiichi Miyazawa, the last of the deshi, or proteges, of former prime minister Shigeru Yoshida, the towering leader of Japan’s postwar recovery.
During this period, Japan has had 12 prime ministers, only one of whom, Junichiro Koizumi, served for any length of time. Koizumi was leader for more than five years. The other 11, some of whom came to office with no experience or interest in foreign or security policy, served for an average of a year, hardly enough time to forge an international posture.
By contrast, the US has had three presidents in that time — Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama — while Britain has had four prime ministers — John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron. China has had two general secretaries of the Chinese Communist Party, who are in effect the nation’s leader — Jiang Zemin (江澤民) and Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).
Polls reflect the gloom in Japanese politics. Before a vote in September in which Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan was re-elected, the Yomiuri Shimbun, the Japanese newspaper with the largest circulation, asked readers why they supported Kan. The replies were: political reform, 9.3 percent; economic policy, 4.5 percent; and foreign policy, 1.3 percent.
However, the most telling result was: “There’s no other appropriate person: 46.5 percent.”
A government official who favored the Democratic Party of Japan, which captured a majority in the lower house of the Diet in August last year, said he was pleased that Kan was chosen, but soon was disappointed because “Prime Minister Kan doesn’t know what he wants to do.”
Kan’s government has been criticized by many Japanese voters for failing to stand up to China. Two Chinese trawlers collided with a patrol boat of the Japanese Coastguard in the sea near the disputed Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) southwest of Japan in September. A Chinese captain was arrested, but soon released without punishment.
Portions of a video taken by a Japanese crew member were leaked to television stations where it seems to have inflamed public opinion. US naval officers said privately it shows that one Chinese ship, coming from astern toward the Japanese vessel, deliberately turned left to slam into the right rear of the Japanese ship.
Richard Halloran is a writer based in Hawaii.
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