Japan foreign policy marred

By Edward Neilan

TOKYO (JP): Is Japan becoming anxious over the complexities and contradictions of basing its foreign policy on the practice of riding on Uncle Sam's coattails?

You bet your life it is.

For one example, Japan continues to let Washington take the lead in security matters concerning Korea and Taiwan.

These two states are very much part of Japan's historical responsibility as well as current geopolitical interest. And yet Japan showed no urgency about being seated at the talks on the Korean peninsula being held this week in the United States among South and North Korea, China and the U.S. Indeed, sometimes it appears as though Tokyo would like to have the status quo of a divided Korea remain indefinitely.

It is inevitable that Japan should play a role in any diplomatic settlement of the Korean problem. The question is when and how. In the more than 40 years since the end of the Korea war, Japan became interested only when normalization of relations was pushed by the U.S. during the rule of President Park Chung Hee. There was a brief period of what could be called U.S.-Japan-South Korean security cooperation during the Korean War -- again at U.S. prodding -- in which American and Korean troops went into battle and Japanese factories turned out war machines and ammunition for a profit.

Some Japanese scholars lately have been wondering out loud if things wouldn't have been better all around if Japan had been able to hang onto Korea and Taiwan at the end of World War II. There was a moment when this was considered in the case of Taiwan but U.S. President Harry Truman changed his mind.

When the same Truman administration in 1950 stated that the U.S. no longer had an interest in the Korean Peninsula, North Korea invaded South Korea. The world is still paying for that mistake.

Fast forward to 1996. Some of the same Japanese scholars who had wanted Tokyo to control Taiwan after World War II now wanted to wash their hands of responsibility for the island state. When the United States sent aircraft carriers to call China's bluff at launching of missiles to disrupt Taiwan's Presidential elections, Japan dodged any show of support.

The tight grip on Uncle Sam's coattails was no longer so comfortable.

"Taiwan is China's problem" became the cry of these commentators. Japan began burying its head in the sand, trying to become oblivious to the fact that Taiwan is also Japan's problem.

Meanwhile, Japan's public opinion pulse seems to be behaving in a way that contradicts the familiar cautious stance of following the U.S. except when things look dangerous.

In a poll released yesterday, seventy-six percent of Japanese favor revising the American-written constitution in favor of a Japanese-written constitution. The poll, taken by a Liberal Democratic Party panel, will lead to various committee studies in the Diet or parliament.

The old "no war" constitution effectively restricts the activities of Japan's armed forces. A new constitution, written in the spirit of nationalism, could lead to the specter of a rearmed Japan which is feared by much of Asia and by parts of Japanese society as well.