Author: Tobias Harris, MIT
Within a week of the formation of the first Bolshevik government, Leon Trotsky, the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, went to the foreign ministry and forced the staff to open safes containing secret treaties that the Tsarist government had made with the Allied powers over the course of World War I, treaties that for the most part concerned how the Allies would divide up the territorial spoils of war.
‘Abolition of secret diplomacy,’ wrote Trotsky, ‘is the first essential of an honorable, popular, and really democratic foreign policy.’ Read more…
Author: Christopher Pokarier, Waseda University
Whales do not usually surface by the exclusive north shore of Sydney harbour. Yet when Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada sat down for a meeting with Kevin Rudd at the Australian Prime Minister’s official Sydney residence, Kirribilli House, on Saturday afternoon, the topic was very much on the menu of their conversation. Prime Minister Rudd declared just the previous day that, as pledged while in Opposition, if a diplomatic agreement to end Japan’s Antarctic whaling program by November was not achieved then ‘…let me tell you, we’ll be going to the International Court of Justice.’
That the whaling issue could assume such public prominence might bemuse pioneers of the bilateral relationship who overcame the legacy of war and cultural distance to forge a prosperous and profoundly important partnership between the two nations. Read more…
Author: Hitoshi Tanaka, JCIE
Over the past several years, and especially since September’s historic change of government in Japan, it has become clear that there is a need to reassess the US-Japan alliance to ensure that it is equipped to face the challenges of the 21st century. There have been changes in Japan that are now reflected in domestic politics, but we cannot ignore the fact that there have been important changes in the regional context as well. China’s rise is apparent to everyone, and there is now a consensus view that East Asia is becoming an engine of growth whose dynamism is benefiting the world.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has spoken frequently of two lofty concepts that arise out of a recognition that the regional context has changed: the desirability of forging an ‘East Asian community’ and the need to have a more equal US-Japan relationship. What is missing in this talk, however, is a clear articulation of how to link the goals of a strong and more balanced US-Japan relationship with a vision of regional community that is equipped to deal with the changes unfolding before us. Although some observers may see these aims as inconsistent or even mutually exclusive, they can be complementary. In fact, effectively coordinating them should be the focus of intense and forward-looking discussions between Japan and the United States. Read more…
Author: Tobias Harris, MIT
As Ozawa Ichiro waited for the Tokyo Public Prosecutors Office to decide whether it would indict him along with his former secretaries, the DPJ secretary-general was busy meeting with Kurt Campbell, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, who stopped in Japan last week along with Wallace ‘Chip’ Gregson, assistant secretary of defense for Asia-Pacific affairs, for discussions with Foreign Minister Okada Katsuya and Defense Minister Kitazawa Toshimi.
Campbell and Ozawa spoke for an hour last Tuesday, with U.S. Ambassador John Roos also in attendance. Read more…
Author: Ryo Sahashi, University of Tokyo
In the first hundred days under the new administration of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and its coalition partners, Social Democratic Party (SDP) and People’s New Party (PNP), criticism of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s foreign policy stance by domestic and American political commentators has continued to mount. The Hatoyama government’s approval rating among Japanese voters has also dropped significantly, though past administrations have also commonly experienced severe declines in popularity within their first three months.
The criticism seems to have reinforced a public impression of Hatoyama’s lack of leadership and strategic vision. Read more…
Author: Tobias Harris, MIT
Foreign Minister Okada Katsuya has arrived in Hawaii for a Tuesday morning meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Following weeks of bilateral acrimony, the two will discuss negotiations to strengthen bilateral cooperation on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the US-Japan mutual security treaty, signed fifty years ago this month.
For the moment it appears that the US will — not without displeasure — set Futenma aside while a defence ministry team considers possible alternatives for building a replacement facility at Henoko Bay. In advance of her meeting with Okada, Clinton said, echoing a recent New York Times op-ed by Joseph Nye (more on this in a moment), that the alliance is more important than Futenma, and that she and Okada will discuss ways to improve cooperation instead of dwelling on the contentious base issue. Read more…
Author: Tobias Harris, MIT
To a certain extent, Japan’s political year ended in August when the Democratic Party of Japan defeated the Liberal Democratic Party in a landslide. From the vantage point of December, 100 days into the Hatoyama government, the Aso government and LDP rule already seem distant.
But from another perspective, it is not so easy to draw a line in Japan’s political history.
The DPJ’s victory represents not so much a break as an experiment. Beset with difficulties at home and abroad — naiyu gaikan, in the Japanese — the Japanese public opted to change captains after giving the LDP opportunity after opportunity to right the ship of state. This is not to say that the LDP and the DPJ are interchangeable. The DPJ’s new model of government does mark a departure from the LDP system. Read more…
Author: Tobias Harris
As the Hatoyama government approaches the end of its first 100 days in office, the air is thick with condemnation of the DPJ-led government’s handling of the relationship with the United States, particularly the ongoing dispute over the future of Futenma air station and the US presence in Okinawa.
Smelling blood in the water, the LDP and its allies in the conservative commentariat have gone on the offensive against the government. On Thursday Tanigaki Sadakazu, the leader of the LDP, said that the government was acting irresponsibly when it came to the hopes of the Okinawan people and harming relations with the US. Compared to what others were saying, Tanigaki was being charitable. Read more…
Author: Peter Drysdale
The big news this week was the chaos over the negotiations on climate change in Copenhagen. Will Steffen was there and files this realistic assessment on whether the deal that was eventually done will generate sufficient momentum to continue to build through 2010 towards a much more comprehensive and effective agreement. His conclusion is that the jury is still out.
And this week, we begin the end-of-year, beginning-of-year series by leading analysts from countries around the region on what the year looks like in retrospect and what challenges there are looking at the year ahead. Over the next few weeks, along with our normal posts, we reflect on what has been a year of enormous change in the world and ahead, at a period of immense fluidity in which Asia seems bound to play a peculiarly important role. Read more…
Author: Aurelia George Mulgan
At the heart of the US-Japan alliance has always been a grand bargain. The United States has provided defence protection for Japan under Article 5 of the Mutual Security Treaty, while Japan has provided bases for the US military under Article 6. Although not strictly under any treaty obligations, Japan has made greater military commitments to the alliance both regionally and internationally in order to compensate for the imbalance in security burdens.
The new Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) government led by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is tampering with this grand bargain. Read more…
Author: Funabashi Yoichi, Asahi
With U.S. President Barack Obama scheduled to arrive Friday for a two-day visit, Tokyo and Washington are still fumbling to get on the same wavelength.
Although Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has repeatedly stressed that his government’s diplomacy would be centered on the alliance with the United States, many in the Obama camp have their doubts. Read more…
Author: Tobias Harris
The day of Barack Obama’s first visit to Japan is approaching rapidly and the focus of the allies remains on the future of Futenma and the US-Japan agreement on the realignment of US forces in Japan.
The Hatoyama government is still weighing its options — and Prime Minister Hatoyama has said on more than one occasion that his government will not be treating Obama’s visit as a firm deadline for coming up with an alternative to the status quo agreement. Read more…
Author: Tobias Harris
The DPJ has pushed on Futenma – and the Obama administration, in the guise of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, has pushed back.
Gates, visiting Japan on a tour through Asia, delivered an unambiguous message to the Hatoyama government that the US government is not interested in renegotiating the bilateral agreement on the realignment of US forces in Japan. Read more…
Author: Tobias Harris
With US President Barack Obama scheduled to visit Japan at the start of an East Asian swing in November — he will stop in Tokyo before going to Singapore for APEC and then concluding his trip with meetings in China and South Korea — the Hatoyama government is working hard to hammer out positions on the two major sticking points between the DPJ and the US government, the future of the refueling mission in the Indian Ocean and the Futenma question.
Regarding the former, Nagashima Akihisa, parliamentary secretary for defense, made waves this week when, in a speech in his Tokyo constituency Monday, he argued that the refueling mission ought to continue with a new mandate from the Diet. Read more…
Author: Tobias Harris
Not even a week into the Hatoyama government, it is clear that Foreign Minister Okada Katsuya will be a force to be reckoned with in the new cabinet.
Even before the government formed, Okada raised the alarm that the new national strategy bureau would encroach on his turf in foreign policy making — prompting Hatoyama Yukio to stress that the bureau’s primary task will be budgeting (i.e., it will not follow Okada’s lead on foreign policy, if it plays any foreign policy role at all).
Read more…
