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Japan’s new U.S. dilemma

— PHOTO: AFP

Japan’s main opposition Democratic Party of Japan leader Ichiro Ozawa announces his resignation as head of DPJ at a press conference in Tokyo on Sunday.

As a steadfast ally of the United States, the Japanese Government is eager to keep its refuelling mission alive in the Indian Ocean area. The operation is closely linked to the ongoing U.S.-guided “anti-terror war,” waged by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, in Afghanistan.

The parliamentary mandate for the mission lapsed on November 1, forcing Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba to order a “suspension” of the six-year-long operation. And, the politics of pacifist Japan’s “anti-terror” campaign on the global stage, widely seen in the country itself as a pro-U.S. strategy that could have been avoided ab initio, may unravel or indeed enter a new phase.

On Sunday, the leader of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, Ichiro Ozawa, announced his resignation as party chief, following the refusal by his own camp to accept Mr. Fukuda’s proposal for a “grand national coalition.” The proposal came up during their talks to resolve the growing crisis over Japan’s long-established links with the U.S. Mr. Ozawa suggested the enactment of a generic law to authorise Japan’s participation in overseas military operations for regional or global peace. Mr. Fukuda proposed a national government, cutting across the divide between the ruling and opposition camps to steer Japan forward as a country at peace with itself and its chief ally, the U.S.

Mr. Fukuda, well versed in the art and craft of Japan’s “machine politics,” is now facing a qualitatively different challenge of winning friends and influencing leaders on a highly emotive issue. What is needed on both sides of the Japanese domestic debate is emotional intelligence — the age-old but newly defined attribute of relevance to politics of the people, by the people, and for the people.

At stake is the popular perception in Japan that its pacifist Constitution, although imposed by the U.S. after the end of the Second World War, should not be trifled with.

Unsurprisingly, therefore, Mr. Fukuda has begun to explore a range of legislative options to resume the refuelling mission.

Under the now-lapsed special purposes legislation, vessels belonging to Japan’s Maritime Self-Defence Force, a pacifist name for the navy, have so far refuelled ships belonging to 11 countries — the U.S. and its allies ranging from Britain and France to Pakistan. The law, first enacted by the Diet (Japanese Parliament) after the terrorist onslaught on some U.S. targets in September 2001, had also empowered the provision of fuel for the ship-borne helicopters of the “anti-terror” coalition.

In addition, the law, extended thrice until its expiry on November 1, authorised Japanese naval participation in search-and-rescue efforts under the rubric of “Enduring Freedom” and other aspects of the “anti-terror” Afghan operations.

The legislation owed its origin to the political skills and charisma of the former Japanese Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, who later negotiated the Japan-U.S. military alliance update for the 21st century. His successor, Shinzo Abe, during his brief tenure of about a year, stayed on the right side of the U.S. and favoured the extension of this legislation. Mr. Abe’s failure to convince the people about the “enduring merits” of this law and his party’s setback in the recent elections to the Upper House of the Diet eventually led to his resignation as Prime Minister.

Mr. Abe traced his resignation, at least partially, to his failure to secure parliamentary approval for an extension of this law. As a result, his successor, Mr. Fukuda, began virtually on a no-win note in regard to this refuelling mission. Before ordering its inexorable “suspension” and announcing his intention to win a fresh parliamentary mandate for resuming the “anti-terror” operation, Mr. Fukuda sought to reduce its scope. The idea was that the now-suspended mission could have been salvaged by making it much more “non-lethal” in scope.

“Non-lethality” is Japan’s pacifist mantra for participation in the U.N.-mandated military operations. And, he was willing to pull Japan out of such activities as the search-and-rescue operations and let it specialise only in the supply of fuel and water to the U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan.

Sensing a negative mood in the Diet even after making such proposals, Mr. Fukuda has not only “suspended” the refuelling mission but also entered into talks with the opposition on a new approach.

In the lead-up to the present impasse, Japan’s self-defence forces had, during Mr. Koizumi’s rule, undertaken “non-combat operations” in support of the U.S.-led forces in Iraq and humanitarian missions there in aid of the Iraqis. However, that mission was brought to an end by popular opposition in Japan. What survived then were the perceivably “non-lethal” air-lift operations in aid of the U.S.-led forces. The key activities of the Japanese ground forces in Iraq were abandoned altogether.

It is not yet clear whether the present dilemma of the Fukuda Government is related to an emerging groundswell of new pacifism or a sudden resurgence of the plain old anti-U.S. sentiments among some influential sections in Japan. Having had the historical experience of an American shogun when Douglas MacArthur stamped the U.S. dominance over Japan after the Second World War, many Japanese do not want the imprint of another American shogun over their country now.

Asia-Pacific diplomats have, nonetheless, begun to place the Japanese and Indian Governments in the same category of major players with huge U.S.-related dilemmas in the forum of East Asia Summit (EAS), which will meet in Singapore later this month.

This situation is tailor-made for creative thinking by the EAS on maritime security issues. The EAS excludes the U.S. but includes China, Japan, India, South Korea, and Australia among others. But the question is whether the Cold War mindset, so dominant in this region, will be easily shed.

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