Koizumi's tough stance bad news for Asia

Koizumi's tough stance bad news for Asia

By Kwan Weng Kin

TOKYO: One wonders how much time Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi has spent thinking about his country's diplomatic
problems since coming to power in April, and how much of this has
been devoted to Japan's relations with her Asian neighbors.

By the looks of it, not nearly enough. For how else could he
have allowed his country's relations with China and South Korea
to sink to such a low point over the past few months and do
nothing about it?

His government's near-total rejection of Seoul's request for
revisions to a controversial history textbook has all but
destroyed a 1998 Japan-South Korean accord to develop a forward-
looking partnership. The Koreans have described Japan's action as
a "betrayal" of Seoul's good faith.

Koizumi's insistence on praying at the Yasukuni Shrine, which
enshrines several Class A war criminals, in addition to a few
million other Japanese killed in war, on Aug. 15 has miffed both
Seoul and Beijing.

For the Japanese, the date marks the end of World War II. Few
want to remember it as the day of the country's humiliating
surrender.

Meeting on the sidelines of an enlarged ASEAN meeting in Hanoi
last week, Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan told his
Japanese counterpart, Makiko Tanaka: "If Koizumi goes to
Yasukuni, it will arouse strong reaction from the Chinese people.
I am afraid the foundation for friendly ties with Japan since
normalization will collapse."

South Korean Foreign Minister Han Seung Soo voiced similar
concerns to Tanaka. But in Tokyo, Koizumi declared once again: "I
will visit Yasukuni as Prime Minister on Aug. 15."

His uncompromising stance reveals all too clearly the right-
wing nature of his government. Says Motofumi Asai, a professor of
Meiji Gakuin University: "Koizumi is fundamentally rightist in
his political orientation. Diplomatically, it is reflected in his
disregard for Asian concerns and feelings."

Political analyst Minoru Morita describes Koizumi as "lacking
a sense of balance, pro-American but hostile towards China and
South Korea".

His obsession with Yasukuni goes back a long way. Reports say
he has prayed at the shrine annually for 30 years without fail,
in some years making more than one trip.

To the consternation of many in his own Liberal Democratic
Party (LDP) and also the Japanese Foreign Ministry, he does not
think he should give up his annual ritual just because he is now
Prime Minister.

LDP secretary-general Taku Yamasaki has tried to persuade him
to pick another day other than Aug. 15. But Koizumi is adamant,
saying he will think about how to mend ties with China and South
Korea after he goes to the shrine.

The influential Asahi Shimbun daily quoted unnamed Japanese
Foreign Ministry officials as saying there was no logic to the
Prime Minister's position, and all they could do now was to
prepare to deal with the consequences. In the face of Koizumi's
immense domestic popularity and hopes he will be able to repair
the economy, the vast majority of Japanese voters have been
silent on his statements on Yasukuni. But not his political
opponents.

Said opposition leader Naoto Kan: "We can understand the need
to pay respects to those who died in the war. But what does
Koizumi think about the political responsibility of those who
ordered kamikaze pilots on suicidal attacks, or who directed the
disastrous Asia Pacific War? He has given us no decent answer."

Koizumi's reason for wanting to go to Yasukuni is hardly
convincing. "The Class A war criminals have been executed. Most
of the enshrined are people who had no choice but to go to war.
Do we have to choose between the dead?" he said earlier this
month in a public debate with other party leaders.

But it is precisely the Class A war criminals, who included
wartime premier Hideki Tojo, that are the problem. A visit by the
Prime Minister only reinforces suspicions throughout Asia, not
only in China and South Korea, that Japan intends to rehabilitate
those criminals.

It is unthinkable that Japan can possibly allow relations with
its two most important neighbors to deteriorate over Koizumi's
Yasukuni fixation. Besides, by continuing to earn the distrust of
Asian countries, it also robs Japan of the chance to play a
larger role in the region.

Warned the Mainichi Shimbun daily in an editorial last week:
"It is a big mistake if Koizumi sees his Yasukuni visit as part
of his concept of reforms without taboo, and in his euphoria, he
intends to push it through."

Aghast at Koizumi's intransigence, some intellectuals have
begun to question his ability to reason, and whether he even
knows what the Yasukuni Shrine issue is all about. He was not
known to have had any strong interest in diplomacy prior to
becoming Prime Minister, and apparently had little interest in
Asia in any case.

Thus far, no one has quite figured out the maverick Japanese
leader. But one thing is clear: Koizumi is bad news for Asia.

-- The Straits Times/Asia News Network