Asian crises a test to Japanese diplomacy
Asian crises a test to Japanese diplomacy
By Brian Williams
TOKYO (Reuters): This is not the best of times to be the
world's biggest aid donor.
After years of reaping business benefits from giving generous
aid, Japan finds itself in the thick of a host of crises in its
own backyard of Asia that have its diplomacy stretched to the
limit.
From Indonesia to India, and from Cambodia to Afghanistan,
Japan has found itself repeatedly thrust to the fore in seeking
ways to defuse crises through its once-famed chequebook
diplomacy.
However, as Japan's once invincible economy has been
challenged, so are questions being raised about what a chequebook
can do when the going gets tough.
The results, at best, are mixed.
Most analysts credit Japan's economic influence with helping
to at least bring together warring sides in Cambodia and
Afghanistan so that a form of peace talks could start.
But in the bigger tests involving Indonesia and India, Japan,
like the world's only superpower the United States, has found its
influence limited, if not non-existent.
India last week ignored a personal plea by Prime Minister
Ryutaro Hashimoto not to resume nuclear testing, and a trip by
Hashimoto to Indonesia in March now appears to have only delayed
inevitable unrest in the country over economic restructuring.
Nozomu Akizuki, professor of Asian diplomacy at Tokyo's Meiji
Gakuin University, says it is not that Japan has lost its
chequebook touch, but just that the world has changed and become
more complicated.
"Under the balance of power in place during the Cold War, it
was easy to know what should be done diplomatically and it was
easy to predict the outcome," he said.
"But with the end of the Cold War, there are no specific
formulas or methods of diplomacy that work," he said.
Akizuki argues that with issues now more complicated, it is
difficult to know who and what to write a cheque for, which could
lead to Japan adopting a lower diplomatic profile.
"In past decades, Japan diplomacy focused on its economic
strength," he said.
But with Japan's own economic difficulties, including cuts in
its aid around the world, Tokyo needs to seek a new diplomatic
path if it is to maintain influence.
"In this sense, Japan must drastically change its diplomatic
mind-set in a new world order," Akizuki said.
Akio Watanabe, professor of international politics at Tokyo's
Aoyama Gakuin University, said Japan had been reduced to making
mainly symbolic diplomatic gestures.
"Japan reacted very swiftly to India, a very rare case. But
it's basically symbolic and you can't expect India to say, 'OK,
we'll quit.' They're not that naive. The move was more to show
the world that Japan is doing what it must," Watanabe said.
On Indonesia, Watanabe said Japan's hands also were tied
because the crisis there has strategic implications that could
extend to the shores of Japan and how big a military role Tokyo
was prepared to play under an expanded defense treaty with the
United States.
"Japan alone cannot deal with the Indonesian situation. It is
not only a matter of money. The issue may develop to a question
of the U.S.-Japan defense treaty," Watanabe said.
Many foreign diplomats in Tokyo give high marks to the skill
of their Japanese counterparts but believe Japan's own domestic
problems are lessening the influence Japan can achieve on the
international stage.
"The people at the foreign ministry are top notch and have
avoided the scandals that have hit other ministries," a U.S.
official said recently.
"But at the moment, because of Japan's domestic problems, they
are mainly having to do damage control for their own country
rather than helping further afield."