U.S. ambassadorial vacancy angers Japan

By Edward Neilan

TOKYO (JP): Japan is steamed over the United States' failure to fill its ambassadorial vacancy in Tokyo.

Ever since former ambassador and onetime U.S. vice-president Walter "Fritz" Mondale left the post in December last year, the American ambassador's chair has been empty.

President Bill Clinton tapped Thomas Foley, former speaker of the House of Representatives, as Mondale's successor, but the White House has not competed its review of his extensive career record, an unnamed official told newsmen.

Although there is no urgent issue pending in U.S.-Japan relations, face-conscious Japan takes the posting of envoys seriously; particularly when it comes to the all-important relationship with Washington.

The two countries are each others' biggest trading partner besides being linked in the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, the linchpin military format in the region. Issue-wise, the North Korean threat nearby and the question of Okinawan bases in Japan are important.

In Japan, as former envoys Mondale, Michael Armacost and Mike Mansfield demonstrated, the U.S. ambassador projects American leadership in the business and social community of the world's largest city and one of the world's most important countries.

"Maybe the U.S. is waiting until after Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto is re-elected in September," said a Japanese television commentator. Japanese political circles are currently wrestling with a security review which is to be released jointly with the U.S. this fall.

One of the issues is whether Japan would help any U.S. use of force against China in case of another Taiwan Strait threat.

China has warned that Japan shouldn't consider any such contingency since Taiwan is "a part of China." Some Japanese politicians want to keep quiet on the issue. Others say it is obvious China and Taiwan are involved since Japan's assistance has long been agreed upon as "anything north of the Philippines."

A senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official tried to hide Japan's irritation. He told Kyodo News Service "Japan is not the only major country where the U.S. has yet to install a new ambassador. But we do want an American ambassador as soon as possible."

With the prospect of Foley's arrival in Tokyo now seen delayed to Thanksgiving or Christmas or even New Year's, a new mini-flap is being generated over the man being sent out to fill the gap until Foley's arrival.

He is Christopher Lafleur, a former deputy director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and son-in-law of former Prime Minister and political backstage guru Kiichi Miyazawa, who has been named to succeed Rust Deming as No. 2 man at the U.S. Embassy here in late September. He will be charge d'affaires--in other words, acting ambassador--until Foley's arrival.

Lafleur was deputy director of AIT from January 1994 until January of this year. Under the cumbersome charade that covers U.S. relations with China and Taiwan, foreign service officers resign and join AIT for the duration of their service. When tours are completed, they resign from AIT and get back on the State Department rolls. As part of the fiction, officers are given credit on their State Department records for service with the AIT.

Lafleur joined the Department of State in 1973 and has served as political officer in Tokyo and Paris, as U.S. Consul in, northern Japan, as director of the office of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia and as special assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs.

There was opposition to Lafleur's appointment in some parts of the State Department and in U.S. business circles because he is the husband of Miyazawa's daughter, Keiko, and is seen as being short on economic experience. A possible conflict of interest was seen since Miyazawa is still active as a factional adviser in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Lafleur's marriage to a Japanese woman, a former Estee Lauder cosmetic firm executive, apparently is the thing about the story that is not unusual.

A recent survey showed that 64 Japanese women were wives of diplomats in four leading Western embassies in Tokyo. The American Embassy led with 24 Japanese wives out of 107 married officers. The Netherlands had the highest ratio, with six Japanese wives among 15 married diplomats, while United Kingdom and Germany had five each.