JAPAN-U.S.: After Back-Patting, Real Action Needed – Analysts

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Feb 20 2002 (IPS) - Despite the smiles and hugs that marked U.S. President George W Bush’s two-day visit to Tokyo, his first stop in a landmark East Asian tour, analysts here say the trip was yet another opportunity for Washington to flex its muscles.

And Bush chose to deliver his message by praising his host, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and his reform agenda. But after all that back-patting, analysts add, the United States would like to see real and immediate results.

“Economics and security are the two main points of the visit, and on both fronts, the United States focused on gaining Japan’s support. Koizumi will face stiff challenges living up to U.S. expectations,” says Professor Haruo Shimada, who teaches economics at Keio University.

Says Japan Times: “The Bush-Koizumi summit has made it clear that Japan will face another test of how much it should boost security cooperation with the United States, an alliance Bush says is based on common interests, responsibilities and values.”

Bush spent most of his two-day visit to Japan proclaiming his whole-hearted support to Koizumi’s whose popularity and public support has waned in recent months because of his faltering reform campaign.

“I am confident in this man’s (Koizumi’s) leadership strategy. I have a good personal relationship with the Japanese prime minister,” Bush told reporters during a joint news confidence before departing for South Korea on Tuesday.

But as an editorial in the ‘Asahi’ points out on Wednesday, the Japanese are not impressed with the lavish praise showered on their embattled leader. The newspaper said that Bush’s remarks that a “robust Japanese economy is in the world’s best interests” should be taken as an expression of strong misgivings about Japan.

The United States sees Japan’s economic health as vital to regional security because a weak Japanese economy would also weaken other Asian economies and destabilise the security situation, the Japan Times quoted a Japanese foreign ministry official as saying.

The leaders of the world’s richest economies treated the Japanese audience to a giddy performance during Bush’s visit that included a luncheon with the Emperor, a speech in the Diet, and an evening stop at a modest Japanese restaurant where they dined in casual attire while smiling and waving to a cheering crowd.

Before Bush boarded his plane for Seoul, he threw his arms around Koizumi in a hug the local media noted as being “longer” than regular.

Japan-U.S. ties are growing deeper, writes the Yomuiri newspaper, Japan’s leading daily, noting the bilateral relationship is moving from an economic one to a larger one encompassing security as well.

As Bush said in his address to Parliament, U.S.-Japan security alliance is crucial to peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region.

C.H. Kwang, senior economist at Nomura Research Institute, said Bush obviously used his visit to prod Japan into action. “Bush is keen that Japan gets its reforms rolling as soon as possible. Sometimes foreign pressure does help Japan to take some action to get things done,” he says.

But Bush, warn economists, is leaving already embattled Koizumi facing an increasingly formidable task of fulfilling his pledge to make visible progress.

They point to the uphill battle to clear conflicts within his own party, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, on enacting some major reforms, as well as the reluctance on the part of the Bank of Japan to further ease credit to combat deflation.

The Japanese media also says the Bush visit has turned the spotlight on the growing unease among policy makers who worry about a shift in U.S. interests to China amid its rising clout.

To escort the U.S.-Japan alliance into a new phase in East Asia, opines Tetsuya Harada, a senior writer for the Yomuiri, Japan needs to get its powerful economy into a recovery track and the system of bilateral cooperation and security coordination must be reinforced.

Bush used his Tokyo visit to warmly thank Koizumi for supporting the U.S. anti-terrorism war in Afghanistan.

Analysts say Bush is keen to use his East Asian tour, which ends in China later this week, to drum up support for the U.S. war on terror beyond Afghanistan as he cannot rely too heavily on Europe on this front.

The U.S. has singled out North Korea, Iran and Iraq as states supporting terrorism.

At the joint news conference, Bush said he decided to make Japan the first stop in his three-nation tour of East Asia because Japan is “one of America’s greatest and truest friends”.

“They know the Koizumi administration is a good partner in terms of international cooperation against terrorists,” says Shimada. “Much of the warm support for Koizumi is based on this U.S. interest.”

But here again, Bush has left Koizumi in a quandary. A major hurdle for Koizumi is winning over deep-rooted public apathy for a strong Japanese military, given the Japan’s military role in World War ll.

In addition, security experts contend that while it was relatively easy for Japan to support Washington in Afghanistan, it is not the same in the case of North Korea, given the possible consequences arising from Pyongyang’s geographical proximity to Tokyo.

NHK, Japan’s national television, also points out Tokyo’s possible conflict of interest with the United States in the case of Iran.

Commentators explained that Japan’s foreign policy nurtures close ties with Iran, which is based on a general policy of developing friendly ties with with Arab nations that provide more than half of the country’s petroleum needs.