Japan stirs troubled NE Asia waters

By Zhang Jingwei
0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, April 28, 2013
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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet members, along with Japanese MPs, recently made a high profile visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, an act which some have viewed as an attempt by Abe's effort to gain more votes in the upcoming senate election. A deeper implication of the visit, however, is that the right wing has started to shape both Japan's political ideology and the country's public opinion.

As has often been the case, tragedy offered a chance for rapprochement. Following the M7.0 earthquake which devastated Lushan County in southwest China's Sichuan Province on April 20, Abe offered search and rescue assistance to China, a fine gesture which was warmly welcomed and mirrored previous such reciprocal efforts between the two countries.

Unfortunately, however, Sino-Japanese relations were jeopardized by game-playing among certain senior Japanese political officials, acts which have further isolated Japan in an already volatile northeast Asia.

On April 23, some 80 Japanese extreme right-wing activists, escorted by Japan Coast Guard vessels, arrived at waters around the Diaoyu Islands, creating a standoff with China Marine Surveillance.

On the same day, 168 Japanese MPs paid tributes at Yasukuni Shrine, echoing Abe's denial of Japan's invasion of its Asian neighbors during World War II. "There is no fixed definition of invasion," said the Japanese Prime Minister.

Earlier, Abe had offerings dedicated to, and three of his cabinet core members, including Taro Aso, visited the place where memorial tablets are placed honoring Japanese war criminals.

China promptly lodged an official protest, criticising the acts, while South Korea expressed its concern and disappointment. Both stances will increase Japan's isolation in northeast Asia.

A Japanese cross-party delegation of law makers was subsequently forced to cancel a planned visit to China in early May; meanwhile, South Korea's Minister of Foreign Affairs Yun Byung-se called off his scheduled visit to Japan. It is also likely that future China–Japan–South Korea trilateral summits will be affected by recent events.

The provocative actions of the Japanese government have also attracted criticism from the country's mainstream press. Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Japanese Economic Times) on April 23 published a commentary which claimed the Abe administration and Japanese MPs were abandoning an opportunity to mend relations with China and South Korea.

Asahi Shimbun went further in its editorial, and launched a stinging attack on the Abe administration's handling of the affair by saying that Japan's isolation from China and South Korea may affect their own interest amid the unpredictable Korean Peninsula situation.

The actions of the Abe administration are, however, largely unsurprising. After the low-profile governance of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), the voice of Japan's right-wing grew louder. Abe, who once again occupies the top government post, directly influences the ideology of both the Japanese cabinet and congress.

During his previous tenure as Japan's prime minister (September 2006 – September 2007), Abe pledged to abide by Murayama Danwa (Murayama Speech), a war apology statement made by Tomiichi Murayama, then prime minister of Japan, on August 15, 1995. But the present Abe administration is risking whitewashing history, suggesting that Japanese society has been hijacked by right-wing ideology.

Japan's economic gloom is partly to blame for the situation, and the rise of its near-neighbors China and South Korea has exacerbated anxieties within Japan, especially the fact that China has surpassed Japan to become the second largest economy in the world.

In this context, it may be little surprise that the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) easily wrested political power from the impotent DPJ, another indication of a shift in public opinion in Japan.

Abe's practical attitude towards foreign diplomacy displayed during his previous tenure disappeared in the wake of Japan's changing domestic situation. Abe appears determined to whitewash history, despite being fully aware that such a course will set Japan at odds once more with China and South Korea.

Japan's provocations on matters regarding the Liancourt Rocks (known as Dokdo or Tokto in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan) and Diaoyu Islands have once again caused a schism in northeast Asian geo-politics.

It seems that Japan would rather isolate itself than exist in peace with China and Korea, buoyed by strategic momentum from a reinforced Security Treaty between the United States and Japan and from domestic right-wing support. In a recent opinion poll, support for Abe had risen to 80 percent.

It is true that the U.S. is covering Japan, but it would not take sides in the standoff between China and Japan, despite the fact that the Japan-U.S. treaty now includes the Diaoyu Islands. In terms of Japan-South Korea disputes, the U.S. is even less likely to take sides.

Abe's misjudgments are unlikely to be supported by the U.S. and will simply aggravate tensions with both China and South Korea.

If North Korea has merely been bluffing with its posturing, then Japan's trouble making in the same region is an invitation to self-destruction.

The author is a research fellow with the Chahar Institute, an NGO founded in 2009 dedicated to research into foreign policy and international relations.

This article was translated by Chen Boyuan. The original unabridged version was published in Chinese.

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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