JAPAN: Tokyo Gets Praises, Brickbats as Summit Leader

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

NAGO, Japan, Jul 23 2000 (IPS) - Billions of yen and an army of officials, policemen and volunteers helped Japan play the role of gracious host at the Group of Eight summit that ended here Sunday.

But while Tokyo was admired as a good host by everyone, it came under fire for its leadership of a summit that this year was meant to give special voice to developing countries, and the way it failed to iron out differences among G-8 countries on key issues.

“It was a very good summit,” US President Bill Clinton, Japan’s most important G-8 partner, told his beaming Japanese counterpart Yoshiro Mori, before boarding his plane back to the Camp David retreat near Washington this afternoon. “I personally enjoyed it.”

Japanese officials said 81 billion yen (some 750 million U.S. dollars), excluding the budget extended by the Okinawa prefectural government, was spent on hosting the summit and other G-8 related conferences including the finance ministers’ meeting last month.

The enormous budget, reported to be far higher than what was spent in Cologne at last year’s summit, covered 20,000 policemen who lined the streets, sandy beaches of Nago as well as the island’s airport.

Also included in the bill were food flown in all the way from Tokyo for the participants, including 4,000 foreign media personnel.

“A priority to us was concern for the health and well being of everybody which is why we took these steps,” said a foreign ministry official.

Japanese media also gave the thumbs up to Mori’s performance, which Kyodo news agency describes as “smooth”. The summit was Mori’s debut on the world leaders’ stage, after he took over as prime minister after the death of Keizo Obuchi.

Mori, known for his controversial remarks in recent months, kept to a carefully crafted script and moved with the strong support of his aides who were reported to not have been far from his side, supporting him, quite literally, from behind his chair.

Despite the painstaking preparations, not everybody is happy with Japan’s leadership in the Okinawa summit.

The non-government organisations represent the most disappointed sector, with many saying the high price tag of hosting the summit made it all the more a letdown that rich countries did not do more for the poor nations they say they want to help.

While extending appreciation for Mori’s efforts to put poverty reduction at the summit’s forefront, they are bitter about the final communique issued Sunday, which proponents of debt relief describe as “hollow and empty and a step back” in efforts to help poor countries.

“The lack of leadership from Japan to get concrete answers on debt cancellation was very disappointing. We cannot expect much from the G-8 group,” said Yoko Kitazawa from the Japanese chapter of Jubilee 2000.

The Japanese government’s much-touted 15 billion dollar fund to close the ‘digital divide’ between North and South was also rejected Saturday by Jubilee, when it burnt a laptop on the beach in protest.

NGOs have denounced the information technology charter put out by the G-8, pointing out that computers are of no use to a vast majority of people in poor countries who cannot read or write.

But the most strident protests in the last three days came from activists in Okinawa who were hoping for a breakthrough on the issue of the hated U.S. military bases that have been here for more than five decades.

Emotions reached a new high in Okinawa in early July, when a 14- year-old girl was molested by a drunk US marine who had broken into her room.

A statement released by the Okinawan NGOs said: “We are totally against the G-8 summit that has been used by the Japanese government to fool the people and make them feel important so that they can forget the problems with the bases.”

While many residents expressed anger at Clinton’s belated apology this week for the incident, crowds of people also gathered in excitement to watch the world’s top leaders and hoards of foreign media arrive on their sub-tropical island on the south of Japan.

“It was good that the central government chose Okinawa,” explained 35-year-old journalist Mie Ogido. “The summit has been a good opportunity for the world to get to know us.”

Okinawa, the poorest prefecture in Japan, is dependent on 1.4 billion dollars in direct spending from the US bases, which occupy 20 percent of the island.

Looking back, the areas where Japan performed best was its usual diplomatic role that relies heavily on acting as the middleman, a position that helps to harmonise, more than lead, in often contentious situations.

In this respect, analysts believe Japan brought developing countries into the main focus in the summit, in a dramatic departure from the rich nations usual way of doing business.

Mori pushed issues such as infectious diseases, the digital divide, food safety, and education, under the theme “deeper peace of mind” for the first time in the G-8, a step that generated animated discussions, say reports.

To win the approval of civil society, Japan also outlined a new fund for NGOS and drew approval from both the G-8 and civil society despite not gaining new resources for it.

Japan’s leadership, however, proves weak when it comes to making other important decisions, due to its penchant for creating consensus at all costs.

For instance Mori, bowing to U.S. pressure, failed to bring a concrete decision in the area of genetically modified food. The United States differs on this issue with European countries, which want tighter laws to regulate the use of genetically modified organisms. There is also growing opposition in Japan to them.

In the end, the summit decided only to have a follow-up conference on the topic.

The ‘Yomuiri Shimbun’, Japan’s largest daily, said on Sunday: “Japan, prior to the summit, unveiled a comprehensive package of 15 billion U.S. dollars for five years for reducing the digital divide.”

But when Tokyo “called on other G-8 members to cooperate, no other country followed Japan’s lead”, it observed.