Hatoyama to Nanjing, Hu to Hiroshima? The New Face of China-Japan Relations
Kosuke Takahashi
TOKYO - With the world economy's center of gravity shifting from the West to the East, led by China's rising economic and corresponding political power, the year 2010 may witness a series of epoch-making events in Asia.
A grand rapprochement between Japan and China could be one such happening. The idea has recently been floated through the media by anonymous diplomatic sources in Tokyo and Beijing, attracting attention among experts worldwide.
The French newspaper Le Figaro reported from Tokyo on January 6 that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had delivered to the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) the script of a spectacular reconciliation this year between the two countries. The report said that China had proposed that Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama Yukio begin the process by going to Nanjing, where a mass killing of Chinese civilians by the Japanese Imperial Army took place in December 1937 and subsequently.
This first visit to Nanjing by a Japanese prime minister since the war would present to the Chinese people Tokyo's official apologies without ambiguity, easing lingering anti-Japanese sentiment among the Chinese public that many associate with unresolved conflicts over the war that ended more than six decades ago. In return, some months later, on August 15, the anniversary of the Japanese surrender in 1945, Chinese President Hu Jintao would go to Hiroshima, the first city to experience atomic bombing, and declare the three non-nuclear principles: China will not make a nuclear first strike, will not attack any non-nuclear country and will not export nuclear arms. The French paper named as its source only "our information".
Meanwhile, the Yomiuri, Japan's largest daily newspaper, also reported from Beijing on January 6 that China had unofficially sounded out Japanese government sources on a visit by Hatoyama to Nanjing, likely around the time he goes to the Shanghai Expo's Japan Day on June 12, with Hu visiting Hiroshima around the time of the November Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit to be held in Yokohama. The Japanese paper said reciprocal visits would aim at improving feelings between the two peoples. Still, unlike Le Figaro, the Yomiuri mentioned nothing about apologies or nuclear promises. It cited "several Japanese and Chinese sources".
China's Foreign Ministry denied the Yomiuri report on January 7, with ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu saying the media rumors of a Nanjing trip were "groundless". But she also said, in what sounded like a non-denial-denial, "It is too early to confirm the details." On the same day, Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Hirano Hirofumi, also denied the reports, saying "at this point, we are not considering" a visit by Hatoyama to Nanjing.
"I have not heard of any such plan," a top Japanese Foreign Ministry official told Asia Times Online, speaking on condition of anonymity. "My guess is that some persons involved might have presented their wish list to have better relations. There is nothing concrete about it." This official's comment suggests that such talks are still going on either at lower government-to-government levels or through party-to-party channels.
The reports by Le Figaro and the Yomiuri followed a similar report in November by the Japanese business magazine, Weekly Toyo Keizai. It reported a secret diplomatic schedule being prepared by relevant Chinese and Japanese players. It predicted that the visit to Beijing one month later by Ozawa Ichiro, secretary general of the DPJ, accompanying more than 600 people, including 143 DPJ lawmakers from the upper and lower houses of the Diet (parliament), would be the first of several Japan-China exchanges. The visit was conducted as part of regular exchanges between the DPJ and the CCP, whose general secretary is Hu.
Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, who is widely seen as the front-runner to succeed now President Hu in the fall of 2012, visited Emperor Akihito on December 15 last year. This was the Japanese emperor’s first audience with a Chinese vice president since April 1998, when Hu visited Japan as vice president.
A day earlier at a banquet welcoming Xi, Hatoyama heaped praise on the Chinese guest as a man who is certain to become the country's leader.
Xi’s meeting with the emperor, however, stirred up controversy in Tokyo, as the Hatoyama administration had arranged it in breach of Imperial protocol which requires that a foreign government’s request for an imperial audience be submitted at least one month in advance, China's request for the audience was filed in late November—less than one month before the actual audience.
The Imperial Household Agency had strictly requested this protocol, especially after the emperor underwent surgery to treat prostate cancer in 2003, making his health the top priority of the agency.
Under these circumstances the audience highlighted the degree to which the Hatoyama administration is striving to improve Tokyo’s ties with Beijing.
The media reports by Le Figaro and the Yomiuri have triggered strong reactions. After Le Figaro's report, China's Global Times posted a questionnaire about possible Japan-China grand rapprochement on its Chinese-language website to which more than 30,000 Internet users responded.
When asked whether the Japanese leader should apologize at the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Museum, 95.0% said "yes". Only 1% said "no". When asked whether the Japanese leader's apology would lead to Japan-China reconciliation, 24.7% said "yes" and 29.5% said "no". However, when asked whether the Japanese leader could apologize in Nanjing, 17.1% said "yes" and 30.9% said "no." The remaining 52% offered no opinion (yes and no).
Japanese leaders' visits to this memorial are nothing new. Nonaka Hiromu, then acting secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, visited the memorial on May 9, 1998, laying flowers at the site and becoming the first leader from his party to do so. In the same month, former Japanese prime minister Murayama Tomiichi visited the site. However, no incumbent prime minister has visited the memorial.
Even if speculation over Hatoyama's visit to Nanjing and Hu's visit to Hiroshima turns out to be just that, it is still intriguing, as a possible indication of China-Japan rapprochement at a time when US-Japan relations are experiencing strains related to US plans to build a new base at Henoko on Okinawa in the face of deep-seated Okinawan opposition.
At the grass-roots level, there have been indications of easing of tensions centered on the war and war memory. From August 15 to November 15 last year, Japanese manga artists held an exhibition at the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Museum titled “My August 15.” This exhibition displayed 130 drawings depicting Japanese war experiences and condemning war atrocities and reflecting on militaristic brutality, but also showing the Japanese people as victims of war, including settlers in Manchuria and residents of Japanese cities destroyed by bombing. On the opening day of August 15, 2009, the 64th anniversary of the end of the war, some 20,000 people crowded the museum. It had taken seven years to arrange the exhibit in Nanjing on the theme of “My August 15”, the exhibit having been displayed in Japan in 2002.
For China, Nanjing is a microcosm of Japan's brutal colonial occupation. China’s Nanjing Massacre Memorial Museum and some scholars say that as many as 300,000 civilians, non-combatants, and surrendered soldiers were killed by Japanese troops from December 1937 through January-February 1938; at least 20,000 women were raped. Recent research by Japanese scholars, while recognizing that a major massacre occurred prior to and during the capture of the city, have estimated the deaths in the range of tens of thousands to more than 100,000. Although Japan has recognized that the mass killing of ordinary Chinese took place, calling it either the Nanjing Incident or the Nanjing Massacre, the number of dead has remained a point of contention between the two nations.
For Japan, Hiroshima is a crucial legacy of the Second World War. The United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days later, on August 9. Approximately 140,000 people in Hiroshima and over 70,000 in Nagasaki were killed in a blink of an eye. In a Japanese census of 1950, 284,000 people reported having been exposed to radiation from atomic bombs in the two cities. The mayors and citizens of both cities have since appealed for recognition of the cruelty of the atomic bombs and elimination of nuclear weapons worldwide.
Since 1996, when then-prime minister Abe Shinzo chose Beijing for his first overseas visit, China seems to have refrained from using the historic Japan card to mobilize its own people and pressure Japanese leaders. Historically, the CCP has drawn legitimation from its struggle against the Japanese invader.
Why then might China want Hatoyama to visit Nanjing? There are conflicting views among Japanese experts. Some say that in preparation for a succession of power in 2012 and beyond, Beijing's internal political battles are intensifying. They note that a faction associated with ex-president Jiang Zemin, who irritated Japanese leaders by bringing up the history issue during a dinner banquet at the Imperial Palace with the emperor in November 1998, has been gaining ground recently. Many Japanese experts believe that Xi has the backing of Jiang, for whom he served as first vice premier, as well as the backing of the so-called princelings in the party, the children of high-level officials born to the party elite whose power extends across the party and business.
Others believe that Beijing wants to settle the historic issues once and for all, to enable the two nations, whose economies are so deeply intertwined, to build a future-oriented relationship of mutual trust, much like the Franco-German reconciliation that president Charles de Gaulle of France and West German chancellor Konrad Adenauer launched by signing the Elysée Treaty in 1963. The foundation of Franco-German cooperation has since been at the center of European integration.
Some US officials and experts may be displeased to see Tokyo's approach to Beijing at a time of conflict in US-Japan relations.
In a commentary titled "Japan's risky rapprochement with China" published on December 21 by The Wall Street Journal, Kelly Currie, a non-resident fellow of the Project 2049 Institute, a Washington think-tank, wrote:
Prime Minister Hatoyama will likely continue his promised efforts to "rebalance" Japanese relations with the US and China, but now that he's actually responsible for governing, Mr Hatoyama needs to ask himself: Which country would ultimately keep the Japanese people's best interests at heart - democratic America or authoritarian China? If the prime minister answers the latter, then the Japanese public - and the Obama administration - really will need to start worrying.
Relations between Japan and China have been rapidly improving since Hatoyama's China-friendly administration was inaugurated last September, as have relations between Beijing and Taipei since the mainland-friendly administration of President Ma Ying-jeou took office in Taiwan in May 2008. With China looming ever more important in the regional and world calculus, it is not surprising that the US administration of Barack Obama has followed suit.
Every country, driven by economic and political pragmatism, is rushing to come to terms with Asia’s and the world’s rising power. Japan is no exception. The result is the opening of a new and unsettled period in Japan-China-US trilateral relations, whose impact will be felt across East Asia, the Asia-Pacific and the world.
Kosuke Takahashi is a Tokyo-based journalist. Besides Asia Times Online, he is Tokyo correspondent for Jane's Defence.
This is a revised and expanded version of an article that appeared at Asia Times Online.
Recommended citation: Kosuke Takahashi, "Hatoyama to Nanjing, Hu to Hiroshima? The New Face of China-Japan Relations," The Asia-Pacific Journal, 3-4-10, January 18, 2010.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
My latest story: Hatoyama to Nanjing, Hu to Hiroshima? (Asia Times)
Hello, my friends. Here is my latest story published by Asia Times Online today. Thanks,
Kosuke
Hatoyama to Nanjing, Hu to Hiroshima?
By Kosuke Takahashi
TOKYO - With the world economy's center of gravity shifting from the West to the East, led by China's rising economic and corresponding political power, the year 2010 may witness a series of epoch-making events in Asia.
A grand rapprochement between Japan and China could be one such happening, and the idea has been recently floated through the media by some anonymous diplomatic sources in Tokyo and/or Beijing, attracting a lot of attention among experts worldwide.
The French newspaper Le Figaro reported from Tokyo last Wednesday that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had delivered to the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) the script of a spectacular reconciliation this year between the two countries. The report said the CCP had proposed that Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama begin the process by going to Nanjing, where a mass killing of Chinese civilians by the Japanese Imperial Army took place in December 1937 and subsequent months.
This first visit to Nanjing by a Japanese prime minister since the war would present to the Chinese people Tokyo's official apologies without ambiguity, easing lingering anti-Japan sentiment among the Chinese public. In return, some months later, on August 15, the anniversary of the Japanese surrender in 1945, Chinese President Hu Jintao would go to Hiroshima, the first city to experience atomic bombing, and declare the three non-nuclear principles: China will not make a nuclear first strike, will not attack any non-nuclear country and will not export nuclear arms. The French paper named as its source only "our information".
Meanwhile, the Yomiuri, Japan's largest daily newspaper, also reported from Beijing on Wednesday that China had unofficially sounded out Japanese government sources on a visit by Hatoyama to Nanjing, likely around the time he goes to the Shanghai Expo's Japan Day on June 12, with Hu visiting Hiroshima around the time of the November Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit to be held in Japan. The Japanese paper said reciprocal visits would aim at improving feelings between the two peoples. Still, unlike Le Figaro, the Yomiuri mentioned nothing about apologies or nuke promises. It cited "several Japanese and Chinese sources".
China's Foreign Ministry denied the Yomiuri report on Thursday, with a ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, saying the media rumors of a Nanjing trip were "groundless". But she also said, in what sounded like a non-denial-denial, "It is too early to confirm the details." On the same day, Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Hirofumi Hirano, also denied the reports, saying "at this point, we are not considering" a visit by Hatoyama to Nanjing.
"I have not heard of any such plan," a top Foreign Ministry official also told Asia Times Online, speaking on condition of anonymity. "My guess is that some persons involved might have presented their wish list to have better relations. There is nothing concrete about it." This official's comment suggests that such talks are still going on either at lower government-to-government levels or through party-to-party channels.
The reports by Le Figaro and the Yomiuri, however, followed a similar report in November by the Japanese business magazine, Weekly Toyo Keizai. It reported a secret diplomatic schedule being prepared by relevant Chinese and Japanese players. It predicted that the visit to Beijing one month later by Ichiro Ozawa, secretary general of the DPJ, accompanying more than 600 people, including 143 DPJ lawmakers from the upper and lower houses of the Diet (parliament), would be the first of several Japan-China exchanges. The visit was conducted as part of regular exchanges between the DPJ and the CCP, whose general secretary is Hu.
The media reports have triggered strong reaction. After Le Figaro's report, China's Global Times posted a questionnaire about this possible Japan-China grand rapprochement on its Chinese-language website. More than 30,000 Internet users have responded.
When asked whether the Japanese leader should apologize at the Memorial for Compatriots Killed in the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Forces of Aggression, 95.1% said "yes". Only 1% said "no". When asked whether the Japanese leader's apology would lead to Japan-China reconciliation, 24.7% said "yes" and 29.5% said "no".
Japanese leaders' visits to this memorial are nothing new. Hiromu Nonaka, then acting secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, visited the victims' memorial in Nanjing on May 9, 1998, laying flowers at the site and becoming the first leader from his party to do so. In the same month, former Japanese prime minister Tomiichi Murayama visited the site.
Even if speculation over Hatoyama's visit to Nanjing and Hu's visit to Hiroshima turns out to be nothing, it is still intriguing, as it may indicate that Japan's shift toward Asia, especially China, and away from the United States, is taking shape.
China seems to have refrained from using the Japan historic card to control its own people since 1996, when then-prime minister Shinzo Abe chose Beijing for his first overseas visit out of a desire to strengthen ties with the leaders of Japan's important neighbor. Historically, the CCP's one-party regime has been legitimized, in part, by its struggle against the Japanese invader.
Why then does China want Hatoyama to visit Nanjing? There are conflicting views among Japanese experts. Some say that in preparation for a succession of power in 2012 and beyond, Beijing's secret battles are intensifying. A faction of ex-president Jiang Zemin, who annoyed Japanese leaders by bringing up the history issue during a banquet with the emperor, has been gaining ground recently. Others believe Beijing wants to settle historic issues once and for all, to enable the two nations to build a future-oriented relationship of mutual trust, much like the Franco-German reconciliation that president Charles de Gaulle of France and West German chancellor Konrad Adenauer started by signing the Elysee Treaty in 1963, a foundation of Franco-German cooperation that led to European integration.
Some US officials and experts, especially right-leaning military planners, may be displeased to see Tokyo's approach to Beijing at a time when the relocation issue of the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa prefecture has been deadlocked.
In a commentary titled "Japan's risky rapprochement with China" published on December 21 by The Wall Street Journal, Kelly Currie, a non-resident fellow of the Project 2049 Institute, a think-tank in Washington, wrote:
Prime Minister Hatoyama will likely continue his promised efforts to "rebalance" Japanese relations with the US and China, but now that he's actually responsible for governing, Mr Hatoyama needs to ask himself: Which country would ultimately keep the Japanese people's best interests at heart - democratic America or authoritarian China? If the prime minister answers the latter, then the Japanese public - and the Obama administration - really will need to start worrying.
Well, the relationship between Japan and China has been rapidly improving since Hatoyama's China-friendly administration was inaugurated last September, as is the relationship between Beijing and Taipei since the mainland-friendly administration of President Ma Ying-jeou took office in Taiwan in May 2008. The US administration of Barack Obama has followed suit.
Every country, driven by economic and political pragmatism, is rushing to cash in on China's huge consumer market. Japan is no exception. As a result, Japan-China-US trilateral relations are giving off a lot of heat in the unsettled state of affairs of Northeast Asia.
Kosuke Takahashi is a Tokyo-based journalist. Besides Asia Times Online, he writes for Jane's Defence Weekly as Tokyo correspondent.
(Copyright 2010 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
Kosuke
Hatoyama to Nanjing, Hu to Hiroshima?
By Kosuke Takahashi
TOKYO - With the world economy's center of gravity shifting from the West to the East, led by China's rising economic and corresponding political power, the year 2010 may witness a series of epoch-making events in Asia.
A grand rapprochement between Japan and China could be one such happening, and the idea has been recently floated through the media by some anonymous diplomatic sources in Tokyo and/or Beijing, attracting a lot of attention among experts worldwide.
The French newspaper Le Figaro reported from Tokyo last Wednesday that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had delivered to the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) the script of a spectacular reconciliation this year between the two countries. The report said the CCP had proposed that Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama begin the process by going to Nanjing, where a mass killing of Chinese civilians by the Japanese Imperial Army took place in December 1937 and subsequent months.
This first visit to Nanjing by a Japanese prime minister since the war would present to the Chinese people Tokyo's official apologies without ambiguity, easing lingering anti-Japan sentiment among the Chinese public. In return, some months later, on August 15, the anniversary of the Japanese surrender in 1945, Chinese President Hu Jintao would go to Hiroshima, the first city to experience atomic bombing, and declare the three non-nuclear principles: China will not make a nuclear first strike, will not attack any non-nuclear country and will not export nuclear arms. The French paper named as its source only "our information".
Meanwhile, the Yomiuri, Japan's largest daily newspaper, also reported from Beijing on Wednesday that China had unofficially sounded out Japanese government sources on a visit by Hatoyama to Nanjing, likely around the time he goes to the Shanghai Expo's Japan Day on June 12, with Hu visiting Hiroshima around the time of the November Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit to be held in Japan. The Japanese paper said reciprocal visits would aim at improving feelings between the two peoples. Still, unlike Le Figaro, the Yomiuri mentioned nothing about apologies or nuke promises. It cited "several Japanese and Chinese sources".
China's Foreign Ministry denied the Yomiuri report on Thursday, with a ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, saying the media rumors of a Nanjing trip were "groundless". But she also said, in what sounded like a non-denial-denial, "It is too early to confirm the details." On the same day, Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Hirofumi Hirano, also denied the reports, saying "at this point, we are not considering" a visit by Hatoyama to Nanjing.
"I have not heard of any such plan," a top Foreign Ministry official also told Asia Times Online, speaking on condition of anonymity. "My guess is that some persons involved might have presented their wish list to have better relations. There is nothing concrete about it." This official's comment suggests that such talks are still going on either at lower government-to-government levels or through party-to-party channels.
The reports by Le Figaro and the Yomiuri, however, followed a similar report in November by the Japanese business magazine, Weekly Toyo Keizai. It reported a secret diplomatic schedule being prepared by relevant Chinese and Japanese players. It predicted that the visit to Beijing one month later by Ichiro Ozawa, secretary general of the DPJ, accompanying more than 600 people, including 143 DPJ lawmakers from the upper and lower houses of the Diet (parliament), would be the first of several Japan-China exchanges. The visit was conducted as part of regular exchanges between the DPJ and the CCP, whose general secretary is Hu.
The media reports have triggered strong reaction. After Le Figaro's report, China's Global Times posted a questionnaire about this possible Japan-China grand rapprochement on its Chinese-language website. More than 30,000 Internet users have responded.
When asked whether the Japanese leader should apologize at the Memorial for Compatriots Killed in the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Forces of Aggression, 95.1% said "yes". Only 1% said "no". When asked whether the Japanese leader's apology would lead to Japan-China reconciliation, 24.7% said "yes" and 29.5% said "no".
Japanese leaders' visits to this memorial are nothing new. Hiromu Nonaka, then acting secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, visited the victims' memorial in Nanjing on May 9, 1998, laying flowers at the site and becoming the first leader from his party to do so. In the same month, former Japanese prime minister Tomiichi Murayama visited the site.
Even if speculation over Hatoyama's visit to Nanjing and Hu's visit to Hiroshima turns out to be nothing, it is still intriguing, as it may indicate that Japan's shift toward Asia, especially China, and away from the United States, is taking shape.
China seems to have refrained from using the Japan historic card to control its own people since 1996, when then-prime minister Shinzo Abe chose Beijing for his first overseas visit out of a desire to strengthen ties with the leaders of Japan's important neighbor. Historically, the CCP's one-party regime has been legitimized, in part, by its struggle against the Japanese invader.
Why then does China want Hatoyama to visit Nanjing? There are conflicting views among Japanese experts. Some say that in preparation for a succession of power in 2012 and beyond, Beijing's secret battles are intensifying. A faction of ex-president Jiang Zemin, who annoyed Japanese leaders by bringing up the history issue during a banquet with the emperor, has been gaining ground recently. Others believe Beijing wants to settle historic issues once and for all, to enable the two nations to build a future-oriented relationship of mutual trust, much like the Franco-German reconciliation that president Charles de Gaulle of France and West German chancellor Konrad Adenauer started by signing the Elysee Treaty in 1963, a foundation of Franco-German cooperation that led to European integration.
Some US officials and experts, especially right-leaning military planners, may be displeased to see Tokyo's approach to Beijing at a time when the relocation issue of the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa prefecture has been deadlocked.
In a commentary titled "Japan's risky rapprochement with China" published on December 21 by The Wall Street Journal, Kelly Currie, a non-resident fellow of the Project 2049 Institute, a think-tank in Washington, wrote:
Prime Minister Hatoyama will likely continue his promised efforts to "rebalance" Japanese relations with the US and China, but now that he's actually responsible for governing, Mr Hatoyama needs to ask himself: Which country would ultimately keep the Japanese people's best interests at heart - democratic America or authoritarian China? If the prime minister answers the latter, then the Japanese public - and the Obama administration - really will need to start worrying.
Well, the relationship between Japan and China has been rapidly improving since Hatoyama's China-friendly administration was inaugurated last September, as is the relationship between Beijing and Taipei since the mainland-friendly administration of President Ma Ying-jeou took office in Taiwan in May 2008. The US administration of Barack Obama has followed suit.
Every country, driven by economic and political pragmatism, is rushing to cash in on China's huge consumer market. Japan is no exception. As a result, Japan-China-US trilateral relations are giving off a lot of heat in the unsettled state of affairs of Northeast Asia.
Kosuke Takahashi is a Tokyo-based journalist. Besides Asia Times Online, he writes for Jane's Defence Weekly as Tokyo correspondent.
(Copyright 2010 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
Friday, January 8, 2010
(Le Figaro) Chine-Japon : le grand rapprochement
http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2010/01/04/01003-20100104ARTFIG00310-chine-japon-le-grand-rapprochement-.php
Entre les deux puissances d'Asie, le poids historique de sanglants conflits s'estompe au profit d'un pragmatisme économique et stratégique. 2010 s'annonce comme l'année de gestes de réconciliation spectaculaires, prélude à une alliance plus étroite.
Un Chinois s'incruste chez l'empereur ! Le chef de l'Agence impériale ne décolère pas. Il y a une semaine, le premier ministre japonais, Yukio Hatoyama, lui a imposé en catastrophe la visite impromptue du vice-président chinois, Xi Jinping, probable successeur du président Hu Jintao. Une faveur exceptionnelle lorsqu'on sait qu'en vertu du protocole il faut un mois pour être reçu par Sa Majesté Akihito. Cette précipitation en dit long sur l'extraordinaire importance que le gouvernement japonais attache à la Chine. Quelques jours plus tôt, le tout-puissant secrétaire général du Parti démocrate du Japon (PDJ), Ichiro Ozawa, avait mené à Pékin une délégation de 643 sympathisants et membres de son parti pour des entretiens au plus haut niveau. Téléspectateurs japonais et chinois ont pu assister en prime time à une scène surréaliste : Hu Jintao se prêtant, bon prince, à une photo souvenir individuelle avec chacun des 143 parlementaires PDJ venus pour l'occasion ! Quelques semaines avant, le ministre de la Défense japonais avait accueilli à bras ouverts son homologue chinois, annonçant des exercices militaires communs.
La haine était une raison d'être du PC
Et tout ceci n'est qu'un hors-d'œuvre. Selon nos informations, le Parti communiste chinois aurait soumis au PDJ le scénario d'une réconciliation spectaculaire cette année : Yukio Hatoyama irait d'abord à Nankin, lieu des pires atrocités commises par l'Armée impériale japonaise lors de sa conquête de la Chine, pour présenter au peuple chinois des excuses officielles sans ambiguïté. Quelques mois plus tard, le 15 août, jour de l'anniversaire du bombardement atomique d'Hiroshima, Hu Jintao se rendrait à son tour dans la ville japonaise martyre pour y exposer les «trois principes» de la doctrine nucléaire chinoise : ne pas bombarder le premier, ne pas attaquer un pays non nucléarisé, ne pas exporter l'arme nucléaire.
Ichiro Ozawa, chef d'orchestre de ce rapprochement spectaculaire, est un vieil ami de la Chine. Il a fait ses classes sous le premier ministre Kakuei Tanaka, précisément celui qui, en 1972, a négocié la normalisation des relations diplomatiques entre le Japon et son immense voisin. Aujourd'hui, il s'efforce de donner un coup d'accélérateur à un réchauffement entamé en 2006.
Avant cette date, les relations japonaises allaient de mal en pis, otages d'enjeux de politique intérieure des deux côtés. À Pékin, l'ex-président Jiang Zemin avait trouvé dans la haine du Japon un motif de rassemblement pour les patriotes chinois (et une raison d'être pour le Parti communiste, historiquement légitimé par la lutte contre l'envahisseur japonais). «Lorsqu'il est venu au Japon, Jiang Zemin nous a bassinés avec l'histoire même au banquet avec l'empereur. Quelle impolitesse !», se souvient un convive japonais encore ulcéré. Du côté du Japon, le premier ministre Junichiro Koizumi leur donna les verges pour se faire fouetter en se rendant au sanctuaire shinto nationaliste Yasukuni en 2001.
Des secouristes japonais
La haine atteint son paroxysme lors des violentes émeutes antijaponaises qui secouèrent la Chine en 2005. Depuis, elle s'est dissipée. «Le Japon et la Chine sont engagés dans ce qu'ils appellent un partenariat stratégique. Hu Jintao a décidé de faire passer au second plan les querelles historiques. Il ne parle plus que des relations sino-japonaises de l'après-guerre, qui sont sans nuage», explique Ryosei Kokubun, professeur de l'Université Keio, le meilleur spécialiste des relations entre les deux pays.
Les dirigeants japonais et chinois multiplient les visites officielles. En 2007, le premier ministre chinois, Wen Jiabao, a prononcé devant la Diète japonaise un discours, retransmis en direct à la télévision chinoise, dans lequel il saluait les multiples excuses du gouvernement japonais à propos de la Seconde Guerre mondiale.
En mai 2008, une tragédie a achevé de rapprocher les frères ennemis d'Asie. Après le tremblement de terre du Sichuan, le Japon fut le premier pays à envoyer une équipe de secours sur les lieux du sinistre. Malgré la méfiance réciproque entre les opinions publiques, la télévision d'État chinoise consacra une très large couverture aux efforts des soixante secouristes japonais. En première page, les journaux chinois publièrent la photo de ces ennemis d'hier, voûtés et silencieux, prostrés par leur impuissance face à la mort, au milieu des décombres. «À partir de ce moment, l'image des Japonais a changé en Chine», estime Ryosei Kokubun.
70 millions de touristes chinois en 2020
Les hommes politiques font du rattrapage accéléré par rapport aux patrons. Car les liens économiques n'ont jamais été aussi forts. L'empire du Milieu est devenu l'atelier du Japon, son principal partenaire commercial, et demain son premier client. Il est indispensable à des groupes comme Nissan, Honda et Toyota, tant pour la production que pour les ventes. À Tokyo, les touristes chinois se pressent dans les restaurants et les boutiques, se substituant aux Japonais assagis par vingt ans de stagnation économique. «Le ministre des Transports est surexcité : il prévoit 70 millions de touristes chinois en 2020, soit autant que les touristes accueillis en France chaque année», s'étrangle le représentant d'une compagnie aérienne européenne à Tokyo.
Le discret Centre d'amitié sino-japonaise, au cœur de Tokyo, est un symbole des relations discrètes qu'ont nouées les deux pays depuis vingt ans, pendant lesquels l'un s'est affaissé, l'autre a décollé. «Nous avons fondé le centre sur l'exemple du traité de l'Élysée entre de Gaulle et Adenauer, qui a initié les échanges de jeunes Français et d'Allemands. C'est le meilleur moyen de rapprocher nos deux peuples. N'oubliez pas que la Chine est vingt-six fois plus grande que le Japon, avec une population dix fois supérieure», explique le président fondateur du Centre, Tatsumi Murakami. Au-dessus de son bureau, une immense et magnifique calligraphie offerte par Hu Jintao, qui se lit ainsi : «Avec la force de la jeunesse, faire régner la paix dans le monde.» À l'époque de la création du Centre, la Chine était encore un objet d'angoisse pour les Japonais. «Le jour de l'ouverture, en 1988, un camion de l'extrême droite a fendu la foule des convives sans que personne ne l'arrête», se rappelle Tatsumi Murakami. Depuis, ce bâtiment austère a accueilli près de 4.000 étudiants, notamment des centaines de doctorants «qui aujourd'hui sont à des postes clés de l'État chinois, dans les universités ou les entreprises», se félicite-t-il. Les anciens étudiants de l'école restent en contact avec leur famille d'accueil japonaise, notamment grâce à un logiciel de traduction simultanée conçu par le centre.
Cette amitié fondée sur l'oubli demeure cependant fragile. Les occasions de malentendus et de conflit sont infinies entre les deux puissances. La dernière crise a été causée par une affaire de raviolis chinois avariés qui ont empoisonné des milliers de Japonais. Un an après les faits, Tokyo demande toujours des explications et laisse cette affaire influencer sa diplomatie.
Mais c'est l'accès à l'énergie et aux matières premières qui est la première source de conflits entre la Chine et le Japon. Les deux pays se battent, par compagnies interposées, dans le monde entier. Chinois et Japonais sont respectivement les deuxième et troisième plus importants consommateurs de pétrole. Dépourvu d'or noir, le Japon doit importer la quasi-totalité de ses besoins. La Chine, elle, était autosuffisante en pétrole jusqu'en 1993. Aujourd'hui, plus de la moitié de ses besoins pétroliers sont importés, et son appétit ne cesse de grandir. Or les ressources ne sont pas infinies. Ce conflit n'est jamais plus évident que dans les eaux qui séparent la Chine du Japon, où Tokyo et Pékin se disputent trois gisements de gaz naturel et de pétrole. Les chancelleries des deux rives promettent périodiquement un règlement à l'amiable, mais elles ne règlent rien du tout et les quelques vaisseaux militaires qui naviguent autour de ces gisements frôlent parfois l'escarmouche. «Toutes les estimations concordent : ces champs n'ont pas un grand potentiel. Ils peuvent déclencher au pire une crise diplomatique, mais probablement pas un conflit», tempère David Hewitt, analyste du secteur pour CLSA. Selon la compagnie chinoise Cnooc, qui a déjà commencé à explorer lesdits gisements à la barbe des Japonais, les réserves représentent 22 millions de barils de pétrole et 67 millions de barils (équivalents) de gaz naturel. Une goutte d'or noir à l'échelle des réserves chinoises (1% des réserves pétrolières et 7% des réserves gazières de la Cnooc), mais une manne substantielle par rapport à celle des réserves japonaises.
La guerre de l'énergie
Une partie de la classe politique met en garde contre un rapprochement politique inconsidéré avec la Chine. «C'est simple : le budget militaire du Japon est le plus transparent du monde, tandis que le budget militaire chinois est le plus opaque», résume l'ancien ministre de la Défense Gen Nakatani. «Il est normal que le budget militaire chinois augmente comme il le fait de 10% par an. Après tout, il ne fait que suivre la croissance de l'économie. Mais ce que nous voudrions savoir, c'est où va cet argent. Et on ne nous le dit pas», s'inquiète Shigeru Ishiba, un des principaux leaders de l'opposition. «La Chine n'a certes l'intention d'attaquer personne. Mais elle n'est pas une démocratie. Sa politique peut changer d'un instant à l'autre. Au moins, avec les États-Unis, nous partageons les mêmes valeurs», dit-il.
Dans les couloirs du centre d'amitié nippo-chinoise, le jeune So Chin Shu bachote son japonais. «La politique ? Je m'en fous. J'aime le Japon. Les mangas, les dessins animés, les jeux vidéo… Pour moi il était naturel de venir ici», tranche-t-il.
Entre les deux puissances d'Asie, le poids historique de sanglants conflits s'estompe au profit d'un pragmatisme économique et stratégique. 2010 s'annonce comme l'année de gestes de réconciliation spectaculaires, prélude à une alliance plus étroite.
Un Chinois s'incruste chez l'empereur ! Le chef de l'Agence impériale ne décolère pas. Il y a une semaine, le premier ministre japonais, Yukio Hatoyama, lui a imposé en catastrophe la visite impromptue du vice-président chinois, Xi Jinping, probable successeur du président Hu Jintao. Une faveur exceptionnelle lorsqu'on sait qu'en vertu du protocole il faut un mois pour être reçu par Sa Majesté Akihito. Cette précipitation en dit long sur l'extraordinaire importance que le gouvernement japonais attache à la Chine. Quelques jours plus tôt, le tout-puissant secrétaire général du Parti démocrate du Japon (PDJ), Ichiro Ozawa, avait mené à Pékin une délégation de 643 sympathisants et membres de son parti pour des entretiens au plus haut niveau. Téléspectateurs japonais et chinois ont pu assister en prime time à une scène surréaliste : Hu Jintao se prêtant, bon prince, à une photo souvenir individuelle avec chacun des 143 parlementaires PDJ venus pour l'occasion ! Quelques semaines avant, le ministre de la Défense japonais avait accueilli à bras ouverts son homologue chinois, annonçant des exercices militaires communs.
La haine était une raison d'être du PC
Et tout ceci n'est qu'un hors-d'œuvre. Selon nos informations, le Parti communiste chinois aurait soumis au PDJ le scénario d'une réconciliation spectaculaire cette année : Yukio Hatoyama irait d'abord à Nankin, lieu des pires atrocités commises par l'Armée impériale japonaise lors de sa conquête de la Chine, pour présenter au peuple chinois des excuses officielles sans ambiguïté. Quelques mois plus tard, le 15 août, jour de l'anniversaire du bombardement atomique d'Hiroshima, Hu Jintao se rendrait à son tour dans la ville japonaise martyre pour y exposer les «trois principes» de la doctrine nucléaire chinoise : ne pas bombarder le premier, ne pas attaquer un pays non nucléarisé, ne pas exporter l'arme nucléaire.
Ichiro Ozawa, chef d'orchestre de ce rapprochement spectaculaire, est un vieil ami de la Chine. Il a fait ses classes sous le premier ministre Kakuei Tanaka, précisément celui qui, en 1972, a négocié la normalisation des relations diplomatiques entre le Japon et son immense voisin. Aujourd'hui, il s'efforce de donner un coup d'accélérateur à un réchauffement entamé en 2006.
Avant cette date, les relations japonaises allaient de mal en pis, otages d'enjeux de politique intérieure des deux côtés. À Pékin, l'ex-président Jiang Zemin avait trouvé dans la haine du Japon un motif de rassemblement pour les patriotes chinois (et une raison d'être pour le Parti communiste, historiquement légitimé par la lutte contre l'envahisseur japonais). «Lorsqu'il est venu au Japon, Jiang Zemin nous a bassinés avec l'histoire même au banquet avec l'empereur. Quelle impolitesse !», se souvient un convive japonais encore ulcéré. Du côté du Japon, le premier ministre Junichiro Koizumi leur donna les verges pour se faire fouetter en se rendant au sanctuaire shinto nationaliste Yasukuni en 2001.
Des secouristes japonais
La haine atteint son paroxysme lors des violentes émeutes antijaponaises qui secouèrent la Chine en 2005. Depuis, elle s'est dissipée. «Le Japon et la Chine sont engagés dans ce qu'ils appellent un partenariat stratégique. Hu Jintao a décidé de faire passer au second plan les querelles historiques. Il ne parle plus que des relations sino-japonaises de l'après-guerre, qui sont sans nuage», explique Ryosei Kokubun, professeur de l'Université Keio, le meilleur spécialiste des relations entre les deux pays.
Les dirigeants japonais et chinois multiplient les visites officielles. En 2007, le premier ministre chinois, Wen Jiabao, a prononcé devant la Diète japonaise un discours, retransmis en direct à la télévision chinoise, dans lequel il saluait les multiples excuses du gouvernement japonais à propos de la Seconde Guerre mondiale.
En mai 2008, une tragédie a achevé de rapprocher les frères ennemis d'Asie. Après le tremblement de terre du Sichuan, le Japon fut le premier pays à envoyer une équipe de secours sur les lieux du sinistre. Malgré la méfiance réciproque entre les opinions publiques, la télévision d'État chinoise consacra une très large couverture aux efforts des soixante secouristes japonais. En première page, les journaux chinois publièrent la photo de ces ennemis d'hier, voûtés et silencieux, prostrés par leur impuissance face à la mort, au milieu des décombres. «À partir de ce moment, l'image des Japonais a changé en Chine», estime Ryosei Kokubun.
70 millions de touristes chinois en 2020
Les hommes politiques font du rattrapage accéléré par rapport aux patrons. Car les liens économiques n'ont jamais été aussi forts. L'empire du Milieu est devenu l'atelier du Japon, son principal partenaire commercial, et demain son premier client. Il est indispensable à des groupes comme Nissan, Honda et Toyota, tant pour la production que pour les ventes. À Tokyo, les touristes chinois se pressent dans les restaurants et les boutiques, se substituant aux Japonais assagis par vingt ans de stagnation économique. «Le ministre des Transports est surexcité : il prévoit 70 millions de touristes chinois en 2020, soit autant que les touristes accueillis en France chaque année», s'étrangle le représentant d'une compagnie aérienne européenne à Tokyo.
Le discret Centre d'amitié sino-japonaise, au cœur de Tokyo, est un symbole des relations discrètes qu'ont nouées les deux pays depuis vingt ans, pendant lesquels l'un s'est affaissé, l'autre a décollé. «Nous avons fondé le centre sur l'exemple du traité de l'Élysée entre de Gaulle et Adenauer, qui a initié les échanges de jeunes Français et d'Allemands. C'est le meilleur moyen de rapprocher nos deux peuples. N'oubliez pas que la Chine est vingt-six fois plus grande que le Japon, avec une population dix fois supérieure», explique le président fondateur du Centre, Tatsumi Murakami. Au-dessus de son bureau, une immense et magnifique calligraphie offerte par Hu Jintao, qui se lit ainsi : «Avec la force de la jeunesse, faire régner la paix dans le monde.» À l'époque de la création du Centre, la Chine était encore un objet d'angoisse pour les Japonais. «Le jour de l'ouverture, en 1988, un camion de l'extrême droite a fendu la foule des convives sans que personne ne l'arrête», se rappelle Tatsumi Murakami. Depuis, ce bâtiment austère a accueilli près de 4.000 étudiants, notamment des centaines de doctorants «qui aujourd'hui sont à des postes clés de l'État chinois, dans les universités ou les entreprises», se félicite-t-il. Les anciens étudiants de l'école restent en contact avec leur famille d'accueil japonaise, notamment grâce à un logiciel de traduction simultanée conçu par le centre.
Cette amitié fondée sur l'oubli demeure cependant fragile. Les occasions de malentendus et de conflit sont infinies entre les deux puissances. La dernière crise a été causée par une affaire de raviolis chinois avariés qui ont empoisonné des milliers de Japonais. Un an après les faits, Tokyo demande toujours des explications et laisse cette affaire influencer sa diplomatie.
Mais c'est l'accès à l'énergie et aux matières premières qui est la première source de conflits entre la Chine et le Japon. Les deux pays se battent, par compagnies interposées, dans le monde entier. Chinois et Japonais sont respectivement les deuxième et troisième plus importants consommateurs de pétrole. Dépourvu d'or noir, le Japon doit importer la quasi-totalité de ses besoins. La Chine, elle, était autosuffisante en pétrole jusqu'en 1993. Aujourd'hui, plus de la moitié de ses besoins pétroliers sont importés, et son appétit ne cesse de grandir. Or les ressources ne sont pas infinies. Ce conflit n'est jamais plus évident que dans les eaux qui séparent la Chine du Japon, où Tokyo et Pékin se disputent trois gisements de gaz naturel et de pétrole. Les chancelleries des deux rives promettent périodiquement un règlement à l'amiable, mais elles ne règlent rien du tout et les quelques vaisseaux militaires qui naviguent autour de ces gisements frôlent parfois l'escarmouche. «Toutes les estimations concordent : ces champs n'ont pas un grand potentiel. Ils peuvent déclencher au pire une crise diplomatique, mais probablement pas un conflit», tempère David Hewitt, analyste du secteur pour CLSA. Selon la compagnie chinoise Cnooc, qui a déjà commencé à explorer lesdits gisements à la barbe des Japonais, les réserves représentent 22 millions de barils de pétrole et 67 millions de barils (équivalents) de gaz naturel. Une goutte d'or noir à l'échelle des réserves chinoises (1% des réserves pétrolières et 7% des réserves gazières de la Cnooc), mais une manne substantielle par rapport à celle des réserves japonaises.
La guerre de l'énergie
Une partie de la classe politique met en garde contre un rapprochement politique inconsidéré avec la Chine. «C'est simple : le budget militaire du Japon est le plus transparent du monde, tandis que le budget militaire chinois est le plus opaque», résume l'ancien ministre de la Défense Gen Nakatani. «Il est normal que le budget militaire chinois augmente comme il le fait de 10% par an. Après tout, il ne fait que suivre la croissance de l'économie. Mais ce que nous voudrions savoir, c'est où va cet argent. Et on ne nous le dit pas», s'inquiète Shigeru Ishiba, un des principaux leaders de l'opposition. «La Chine n'a certes l'intention d'attaquer personne. Mais elle n'est pas une démocratie. Sa politique peut changer d'un instant à l'autre. Au moins, avec les États-Unis, nous partageons les mêmes valeurs», dit-il.
Dans les couloirs du centre d'amitié nippo-chinoise, le jeune So Chin Shu bachote son japonais. «La politique ? Je m'en fous. J'aime le Japon. Les mangas, les dessins animés, les jeux vidéo… Pour moi il était naturel de venir ici», tranche-t-il.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Happy New Year!
Greetings for the new year!
As the new year starts, I wish for you, your family, and your companies happiness and growth.
In East Asia, 2010 is the Year of the Tiger.
Monday, December 21, 2009
My latest story: Japan eyes methane hydrate as energy savior (Asia Times)
Japan eyes methane hydrate as energy savior
By Kosuke Takahashi
TOKYO - Japan, the world's second-largest economy, may have found a way to reduce its almost total dependence on other countries for the oil that drives the industries on which the country's wealth is built.
Betting that Japan can extract and commercially exploit methane hydrate, the hoped-for alternative to oil, investors last week drove up the price of Japan Drilling, a company established in 1968 but only this month raising money by selling shares to the public.
Japan Drilling won the attention of market players because it is involved in the niche field of researching and developing methane hydrate.
The mineral is abundant in the seabeds surrounding Japan and may, over and above revitalizing the country's economy, reshape Tokyo's diplomatic and military relationships with the outside world, including the United States.
Japan has few mineral resources to speak of. It imports 99.7% of its crude oil, importing 87% of its oil from the Middle East. That makes the country heavily reliant on a secure sea lane stretching from the Middle East to Northeast Asia. Maintenance of good diplomatic relations with energy suppliers and with its military backer, the United States, is also essential.
Methane hydrate is a frozen methane gas found in a high-pressure, low-temperature environment, such as seabeds and beneath frozen ground. It is often called burning ice. Methane itself is a component of natural gas.
There are growing expectations that methane hydrate will come to serve as a valuable energy resource. The US, China, Canada and South Korea are among other countries seeking to develop commercially viable extraction technology.
In Japan, the government is backing efforts to complete research and development by 2018 and launch commercial production after that.
The volume of methane hydrate in seafloor sediments around Japan alone is estimated to be enough to provide energy equivalent to 90 years of the nation's natural gas usage today.
In 2007, the government announced that there were 1.14 trillion cubic meters of methane hydrates in a Pacific Ocean trench, the Nankai Trough, some 50 kilometers from the eastern coast of Honshu, the main Japanese island. This reserve is equivalent to almost 14 years of gas use by Japan at current rates - equivalent of a giant gas oil field. Other reserves are also buried around Japan.
There are, though, hitches. Much of Japan’s methane hydrate is in the seafloor 1,000 meters to 2,000 meters below the surface, making extraction a major technological challenge. In March 2008, the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp (JOGMEC) succeeded in extracting methane from methane hydrate reserves under the tundra of northwestern Canada. This extraction from a deposit more than a kilometer below the Earth's surface has been hailed as the major breakthrough for which Japan had been waiting.
A broader doubt hangs over the environmental suitability of methane hydrate, particularly as global concern over pollution of the atmosphere has become more intense thanks in part to publicity surrounding this month's Copenhagen climate talks. Although methane is a cleaner-burning fossil fuel than coal or oil, more than a few scientists and environmentalists are concerned that as-yet untapped methane hydrates represent "captured" greenhouse gasses that should remain locked under the sea.
Such concerns are rejected by Koji Yamamoto, a project director at the JOGMEC. "Can environmental disaster happen by gas hydrate production? The answer is no. Methane hydrate consists of pure water and methane, and no harmful substances.
"Some people are also afraid of a chain chemical reaction" in the extraction process, Yamamoto said. "However, it never happens. The gas hydrate is quite stable material ... Geological events of massive gas hydrate dissociation might be caused by changes in global scale ocean conditions. Artificial gas production is a completely different phenomenon."
Even so, to ease such environmental concerns, the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry in Tokyo has developed technology that will absorb carbon dioxide to increase production of methane hydrate. This technology uses the heat of carbon dioxide for hydrate production and is expected to limit the emission of greenhouse gases.
That should be good news for Japan Drilling, Japan's sole offshore drilling contractor, which listed on Thursday on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Investors certainly like the look of the stock, which after being offered at 3,800 yen per share on Thursday morning surged 59.2% in two days, closing at 6,050 yen on Friday.
But they might have to wait some time before they see full-scale commercial drilling and extraction. "Methane hydrate will surely help boost Japan's self-reliant defense," a Japanese military analyst, Toshiyuki Shikata, told Asia Times Online. "But it takes a long time to use it commercially. And it is still unsure if it pays off to invest in research and development of the mineral."
Kosuke Takahashi is a Tokyo-based journalist. Besides Asia Times Online, he also writes for Jane's Defence Weekly as a Tokyo correspondent. He can be contacted at letters@kosuke.net.
(Copyright 2009 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
(Financial Times Editorial) Okinawa outcry
Okinawa outcry
Published: November 11 2009 20:09 | Last updated: November 11 2009 20:09
A decision by the new government of Japan to re-examine the location of a US marine helicopter base on the southern island of Okinawa has prompted talk of a dangerous rift in the US-Japan alliance. Robert Gates, US defence secretary, offended his Japanese hosts last month when he lectured them about foot-dragging, telling the new government it must stick to the deal made by its predecessor. A senior state department figure apparently went one stage further, telling the Washington Post that Japan, not China, was now the US’s most problematic relationship in Asia. That is nonsense.
To be fair, Jeff Bader, the senior director for East Asian affairs at the National Security Council, called the anonymous comments asinine. Yet Washington has clearly been taken aback by the Democratic Party of Japan’s decision to act on its election pledge of seeking to make the US-Japan alliance “more equal”. In particular, the Pentagon is frustrated at the prospect of having to renegotiate a 1996 deal, not yet implemented, to move the Futenma helicopter base.
The US has over-reacted and President Barack Obama, who arrives in Tokyo on Friday, would do well to admit as much. It is only natural the new Japanese government, having unseated the conservative Liberal Democratic party from half a century of virtually uninterrupted power, should conduct a thorough policy review.
Its stated ambition to forge a less dependent US relationship is actually to be welcomed. Old Japan hands in Washington seem to have forgotten that the LDP promised much but delivered little in the way of the support for US military operations that they wanted.
Nor is Mr Gates’ assertion credible that all previous agreements are sacrosanct. Only a few months ago the Obama administration dropped Bush-era plans for missile defence bases in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Certainly, the DPJ’s determination to look again at the Futenma base move is annoying for military strategists who spent years hammering out the previous deal. But talk that this somehow rattles the foundations of the US-Japan alliance, which has been crucial to postwar stability in the Pacific, is ludicrous. By being so impatient and pushing the new government into a corner, Washington is in danger of producing precisely the result it is trying to avoid. Given some time, the DPJ will reach a workable compromise. Mr Obama should use his rhetorical skills to give Japan’s government the space to do just that.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009. Print a single copy of this article for personal use. Contact us if you wish to print more to distribute to others.
Published: November 11 2009 20:09 | Last updated: November 11 2009 20:09
A decision by the new government of Japan to re-examine the location of a US marine helicopter base on the southern island of Okinawa has prompted talk of a dangerous rift in the US-Japan alliance. Robert Gates, US defence secretary, offended his Japanese hosts last month when he lectured them about foot-dragging, telling the new government it must stick to the deal made by its predecessor. A senior state department figure apparently went one stage further, telling the Washington Post that Japan, not China, was now the US’s most problematic relationship in Asia. That is nonsense.
To be fair, Jeff Bader, the senior director for East Asian affairs at the National Security Council, called the anonymous comments asinine. Yet Washington has clearly been taken aback by the Democratic Party of Japan’s decision to act on its election pledge of seeking to make the US-Japan alliance “more equal”. In particular, the Pentagon is frustrated at the prospect of having to renegotiate a 1996 deal, not yet implemented, to move the Futenma helicopter base.
The US has over-reacted and President Barack Obama, who arrives in Tokyo on Friday, would do well to admit as much. It is only natural the new Japanese government, having unseated the conservative Liberal Democratic party from half a century of virtually uninterrupted power, should conduct a thorough policy review.
Its stated ambition to forge a less dependent US relationship is actually to be welcomed. Old Japan hands in Washington seem to have forgotten that the LDP promised much but delivered little in the way of the support for US military operations that they wanted.
Nor is Mr Gates’ assertion credible that all previous agreements are sacrosanct. Only a few months ago the Obama administration dropped Bush-era plans for missile defence bases in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Certainly, the DPJ’s determination to look again at the Futenma base move is annoying for military strategists who spent years hammering out the previous deal. But talk that this somehow rattles the foundations of the US-Japan alliance, which has been crucial to postwar stability in the Pacific, is ludicrous. By being so impatient and pushing the new government into a corner, Washington is in danger of producing precisely the result it is trying to avoid. Given some time, the DPJ will reach a workable compromise. Mr Obama should use his rhetorical skills to give Japan’s government the space to do just that.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009. Print a single copy of this article for personal use. Contact us if you wish to print more to distribute to others.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Something wrong with the International Herald Tribune?
Today I could not believe my own eyes. The International Herald Tribune (IHT), published by the Asahi newspaper in Tokyo, placed Rolex’s full-page ads on the front page and the back page. Please see the above pictures.
The ordinary news section virtually begins with page 3.
The IHT may say it just wrapped up the newspaper itself in full-page ads.
Have you seen this type of newspaper ad before in your place?
Is this only happening at the International Herald Tribune/ The Asahi Shimbun published in Tokyo? Is this a new trend in newspaper ads?
I just wonder.
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