FOREIGN POLICY STALEMATE

Two of the most important foreign policy topics facing Japan are the country’s contribution to maintaining security in Iraq and the Middle East and the North Korean problem. The first issue came to the fore once again when the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s mission to supply fuel to vessels of US-led coalition forces in the Indian Ocean was suspended owing to the expiration of the Antiterrorism Special Measures Law last November. Troops from the Ground Self-Defense Force sent to assist in Iraq’s rebuilding returned home in 2006. The forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Afghanistan are now calling for support, and Japan’s response is under scrutiny. Japanese inaction is also at issue in connection with the North Korean problem. Talks between Pyongyang and Washington have progressed, but negotiations involving Tokyo have foundered on the abduction issue, casting doubt on Japan’s role in the six-party talks to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

Against this background, Ozawa Ichirô, president of the Democratic Party of Japan, stirred up a storm of controversy with an article in the November 2007 issue of the monthly opinion magazine Sekai titled "Kôkai shokan: Ima koso kokusai anzen hoshô no gensoku kakuritsu o" (Open Letter: Now Is the Time to Establish Principles for International Security), in which he argues that if Japan wishes to deploy the Self-Defense Forces overseas to fight the war on terror, it should be sending them to Afghanistan, not Iraq.

To better understand the significance of Ozawa’s piece, we need to review the political background. Last July Ozawa’s DPJ scored a major victory in the House of Councillors election and took effective control of the upper house. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party remained in control of the more powerful House of Representatives, but with the opposition controlling the House of Councillors, it has been hard pressed to chart and steer a course for the country. Committed to continuing the MSDF refueling mission under the Antiterrorism Law, Prime Minister Abe Shinzô sought to engage Ozawa in talks aimed at reaching an agreement on the issue, but after failing in this initiative, he abruptly resigned in September. The refueling operations were halted when the law expired in November, and since then Japan has contributed almost nothing to international efforts in the Gulf region. Word has it that Prime Minister Fukuda Yasuo, who took over from Abe, is determined to pass a new law over the opposition’s objections by putting it to a second vote in the House of Representatives, which can override the House of Councillors with a two-thirds majority.

This is the political context in which Ozawa published his views on the issue. The article reiterates his long-held position that the war in Iraq, launched without the approval of the United Nations, is an illegitimate war. At the same time, it argues that the reconstruction effort in Afghanistan, in which many countries are participating, is a legal operation, since it was sanctioned by UN resolutions. Accordingly, if Japan is to send its forces anywhere, it should send them to Afghanistan, says Ozawa.

Such discussion also needs to be viewed in the context of Japan’s overseas missions to date and the climate of public opinion concerning such efforts. The deployment of troops in Iraq was consistent with Japan’s post–Cold War policy of upgrading its contribution to the international community by gradually ramping up SDF participation in overseas policing, peacekeeping, and reconstruction operations. This policy was a response to calls from the international community, and it has been widely applauded by other countries. However, a yawning chasm divides international and domestic opinion on security issues.

Throughout the Cold War era the Japanese government refused to acknowledge the legality of sending SDF troops overseas, claiming that it was unable to exercise the right of collective self-defense under Article 9 of the Constitution. After the Cold War ended, the policy shifted to one that recognized such deployment as legitimate providing it occurred in response to a UN resolution—although, as Japan’s involvement in Iraq suggests, the key consideration for the Japanese government was unquestionably the need to stand by the Japan-US alliance.

During his brief tenure Prime Minister Abe sought to further loosen legal constraints on SDF deployment overseas with a push toward amendment of the Constitution, but his ideas on the subject appear to have made little headway among the general populace. Although the SDF have gradually built up a record of achievement through their overseas operations, the public as a whole still fears unbridled expansion of those activities.

The articles featured in this section examine this and Japan’s other major foreign dilemmas in context. Kitaoka Shin’ichi argues that the political deadlock in the Diet threatens to wreak havoc with national security policy and calls for moves toward a "grand coalition" between the LDP and the DPJ. Kotera Akira makes the case that the domestic debate over the SDF’s overseas mission has mistakenly turned a policy issue into a legal one. He argues that since the refueling operation is legal under international law, it should be approached as a national policy question, to be settled according to Japan’s own judgment. On the North Korean problem, meanwhile, Izumi Hajime warns that by refusing to take part in negotiations until the abduction issue is resolved Japan risks missing the opportunity to make a significant contribution to the solution.

In the past Japanese and foreign observers alike criticized Tokyo’s foreign policy makers for acting only in response to the pressure of foreign opinion, particularly that of the United States. It seems that this criticism remains valid. Debate drags on endlessly over Japanese diplomacy in relation to the United States, the United Nations, international law, and so forth, but the real issue is Japan’s political will to define and fulfill its commitment to the international community. This is the hurdle that Japanese foreign policy must overcome. (Watanabe Hirotaka, Professor, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)

© 2008 Japan Echo Inc.