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