THE historic elections in Japan that ended the LDP's 55 years long hold on power is set to bring about major changes in its foreign policy directions and objectives. During the elections domestic issues and the call for change captivated the attention of the voters. Foreign affairs did not figure prominently in luring voters to the DJP. However, things are changing in Tokyo. Although the DJP must satisfy the voters on a range of economic issues, foreign affairs is currently causing more attention both in Japan and outside. It seems significant changes are in the offing there in the way the DJP conducts its foreign relations, particularly with the United States. The new Foreign Minister of Japan Katsuya Okada is bringing all the attention both by his personality and the issues he is prioritizing for the new DJP Government in foreign affairs.
Okada will be more than a Foreign Minister. As a former DJP President, he could have very well been the present Prime Minister. He led the DJP brilliantly in the 2004 general elections but resigned when the party suffered a humiliating defeat in snap elections that Koizumi called the year after. Before assuming the post of Foreign Minister, he was the party's General Secretary. All these are well acknowledged within the party. Thus he will be a powerful Foreign Minister who will be likely to stamp his authority upon Gaimashu (Foreign Ministry in Japanese) unlike many of his predecessors. The Social Democratic Party, with whom it entered into alliance for leverage in the Upper House where its numbers are weak, wants a dramatic shift in Japan's polity towards the US. In focus are four secret deals that give the US unilateral rights on crucial military and nuclear issues. Okada is also aware that there is a significant section of Japanese, particularly the young generation, who would like Japan to come out of the US umbrella. However, Okada is also aware that he must steer the country in a position where the Japan-US ties are not weakened for a host of reasons. Given his stature and his close ties with US leadership, Okada is likely to achieve this crucial objective in relations with the US.
He has already focused on the sensitive issue of Japan-US relations to satisfy public curiosity. He has instructed Mitoji Yabunaka, a career diplomat and Vice-Foreign Minister who is also the bureaucratic head of Gaimashu, to inform him with facts about four secret pacts that Japan is publicly known to have signed with the United States. There has always been suspicion that Japan had at various times signed with USA four secret pacts that the government has always denied, even under oath in Parliament. The denials notwithstanding, many Japanese believe in their existence and want these to be scrapped.
One of these four secret agreements was introduced in 1960 at the time of revision to US-Japan Act in 1960 that allowed US to bring nuclear weapons to Japan unilaterally. A second secret deal was reached in 1972 when Okinawa was returned to Japan that allowed the US to bring nuclear weapons in Japanese territory at times of emergency, again unilaterally. A third secret pact allows USA to use its military bases in Japan for contingencies in the Korean peninsula without consultation with Japan. The fourth secret pact imposes upon Japan to bear the costs of returning former US military bases to their original sites. The new Foreign Ministry has demanded that Gaimashu set up committees with experts drawn from Japan and abroad to examine and scrutinize documents and papers and interview relevant officials. The process of investigation would take the whole of next year to complete, which may bring many officials to face serious consequences.
Okada's instruction to Yabunaka on the secret pacts could suggest that he holds strong anti-US views. That would create a paradox if the new Foreign Minister is serious about pursuing a path of confrontation with the USA. Maintaining Japan's alliance with USA, its only military ally where Japan is bound by its constitution not to empower itself militarily for offensive purposes, is crucial to its existence because it is under threat of nuclear attack by North Korea. Japan's historical relation with China has, within it, seeds of future conflict that makes a strong Japan-US relation vital for Japan. Fortunately, despite his instructions on the secret deals, Okada holds quite a different view personally on the US whose politics has influenced his thinking to a great extent. He studied in Harvard University for a year at the Weatherhead Centre for International Affairs where his teachers were Economist Geoffrey Sachs and former Labour Secretary Robert Reich. He visits USA once a year and has close friends in US politics and administration. All these are expected to come into bearing in the way the new Foreign Minister conducts Japan's relations with its key ally the United States to tone down the anti-US views of the Social Democratic Party and sections of the public. In fact, experts believe that with Okada, the DJP will handle Japan-US relations mote realistically and differently from the way they spoke on these relations leading to the general elections.
The new Foreign Minister is also expected to set new directions in Japan's relations with its neighbours, particularly China. As a parliamentarian and DJP President, he made known his dislike for many of Koizumi's actions that he thought had adverse consequences regarding foreign relation for Japan. In his book Seiken Koutai (Change of Regime in English) written in 2008, Okada said that during the Koizumi era, Japan allowed US unilateralism the upper hand while paying little attention to its Asian neighbours that narrowed its diplomatic choices. Okada was severely critical over Koizumi's yearly visits to the controversial Yasukuni shrine that honours 14 Class One war criminals much to the disgust of China and South Korea. During a debate in Parliament in June 2005, Okada sternly told Koizumi that his visits to the Yasukuni shrine will destroy Japan's relations with China and in turn affect its relations with the rest of Asia. In that speech, he went on to suggest that the yearly visits to Yasukuni damaged Japan's chances for a permanent seat in the expanded UN Security Council and sabotaged the chances of China's assistance in resolving the North Korean standoff on the nuclear issue.
His views on Koizumi's Yasukuni shrine visits that many in the LDP think will no doubt endear him to the Chinese and the South Koreans, two countries that are crucial to Japan's foreign policy needs and objectives in the Korean peninsula. A more balanced relationship with the US that Okada is likely to bring about in Japan-US relations by smoothing US' unilateralism will also help bring Japan closer to the Asian countries from whom it had gradually drifted away under the LDP. Japan under Okada's stewardship is expected to re-discover its Asian roots.
For Bangladesh, both Okada and DJP are unknown quantities. There are both opportunities and problems in the change of government in Tokyo. The LDP leadership that was in power when Bangladesh was fighting its war of liberation was strongly motivated to support Bangladesh's economic development when the country became independent. That motivation continued over many decades both in the economic and political context of Bangladesh-Japan relations. The political ties have weakened in recent times but Japan still remains strongly committed to being Bangladesh's most important development partner. Bangladesh's diplomacy must now make renewed efforts to reach the new leaders in Japan. Okada's focus on Asia could create scope for Bangladesh to re-kindle the once strong political ties while seeking greater economic relations where Japanese investment should be the key focus.
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